Unless you don't know already, the Tamil Nadu Premier League is back for its second edition!
It began on 22nd July with TUTI Patriots (who are the defending champions) take on Din Digul Dragons at the M.A Chidambaram stadium in Chennai. The TUTI Patriots won by 7 runs in what was a nail biting match.
To the uninitiated, do not miss the fun! Here is Everything you need to know about the Tamil Nadu Premier League 2017.
NEW PLAYOFFS
There is one main change to the second edition of TNPL in the format of the playoffs. While the inaugural edition of the tournament saw two semi-finals and then the winners contesting the final, this edition will see the IPL-style format being used with two qualifiers and an eliminator deciding which teams progress to the final.
All eight teams who competed in the first edition are back this time around, although two teams have made slight tweaks to their names. The franchise owned by Ruby have become the Ruby Trichy Warriors instead of the Ruby Kanchi Warriors while the Madurai franchise have decided to drop the ?s? at the end of their name and will be Madurai Super Giant. Let us hope these changes are lucky for them!
LET?S MEET THE SQUAD
Albert TUTI Patriots
The defending champions TUTI Patriots once again begin as the favorites and have a balanced side of youth and experienced players.
Squad: Maruti Raghav, V Athisayaraj Davidson, Dinesh Karthik, Washington Sunder, Aswin Crist, Abhinav Mukund, Ashik Srinivas, Kaushik Gandhi, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Subramanian Anand, Akash Samra, R Sathyanarayan, Umashankar Sushil, M Ganesh Moorthi, R Vishaal, Siddarth Ahuja, V Lakshman, SP Nathan, G Nicul Anand.
Chepauk Super Gillies
With mostly the same squad that got to the finals in TNPL 20176, veteran player Rajagopal Sathish will be hoping to take his side one step further this time around!
Squad: Rajagopal Sathish, Yo Mahesh, Thalaivan Sargunam, Antony Dhas, Gopinath, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Uthirasamy Sasidev, Joel Joseph, Dakshinamoorthy Kumaran, R Alexander, Sathiamoorty Saravanan, Baskaran Rahul, Ashwath Mukumthan, S Karthik, Aditya Barooah, Jothimani Gowjith Subhash, Arun Kumar, Rangaraj Suthesh, S Radhakrishnan.
Lyca Kovai Kings
Although they have plenty of promising bowlers, two Vijays, Vijay Shankar and Murali Vijay will be not taking part in this year?s tournament owing to the India A tour and an injury respectively. Let us hope that doesn?t deter this team from giving a great performance this season!
Squad: M Siddharth, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, Manish Ravi, K Deeban Lingesh, Murali Vijay, JS Mohammad, M Mohammed, L Suryaprakash, Vijay Shankar, MK Sivakumar, Ravi Kumar Rohith, Krishnamoorthy Vignesh, B Anirudh Sita Ram, S Ajith Ram, S Harish Kumar, Akshay Srinivasan, B Arun, S Tarun Srinivas, K Gowtham Thamarai Kannan, Ranjan Paul.
Dindigul Dragons
Despite some splendid individual performances in the TNPL 2016, Dragons failed to make the final and they will be looking to rectify that this time.
Squad: S Kishan Kumar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Murugan Ashwin, T Natarajan, MS Sanjay, N Jagadeesan, Ganga Sridhar Raju, Subramania Siva, Sunny Kumar Singh, K Mukunth, Wilkins Victor, Ashwin Venkataraman, ME Yazh Arun Mozhi, S Abishiek, R Vivek, Adithya Arun, M Silambarasan, S Dinesh.
Madurai Super Giant
Although they don?t boast of too many big-ticket players, Madurai Super Giant have some youngsters who could surprise us with their skills.
Squad: Sivagnanan Senthilnathan, PS Sivaramakrishnan, K Mani Bharathi, Murugan Ganesh, R Ajith, M Poiyamozhi, Arun Karthik, Suresh Kumar, P Francis Rokins, DT Chandrasekar, M Raja, Shijit Chandran, Lakshminarayanan Vignesh, Muruganantham, Palani Amarnath, Edward Kennedy, Shahrukh Khan, R Karthikeyan, D Prashanth Prabhu.
VB Thiruvallur Veerans
With captain Baba Aparajith (who is also a Fast&Up Athlete, woohoo!) available for the entire duration of the tournament, Veerans will be looking forward to utilize the experienced support staff to the fullest and go to the playoffs and finals too!
Squad: Vignesh, R Rajan, RD Ashwin Kumar, Hari Nishanth, Baba Aparajith, Abhishek Tamrakar , Rahil Shah, R Kavin, NS Chaturved, Malolan Rangarajan, Ramalingam Rohit, Jaganath Sinivas, Sanjay Yadav, S Arun, Lakshmi Narayanan, Silambarasan, U Mukilesh, Samuel, Anand Rajan, S Siddharth.
Karaikudi Kaalai
Keeping their side young, Kaalai also have a player who is 14-years-old! But they have balanced youth with some experienced players making Kaalai a side to watch out for.
Squad: Varun Chakravathi, Shikhar Hukku, Srikkanth Anirudha, Aashish Srikrishnan, Nivethan Radhakrishnan, S Badrinath, Sunil Sam, Suresh Babu, S Lokeshwar, Chandrasekar Ganapathy, Shoaib Md Khan, K Vishal Vaidhya, R Sonu Yadav, R Rajkumar, S Mohan Prasath, M Vijay Kumar, Rajhamany Srinivasan, M Shajahan, Trilok Nag.
Ruby Trichy Warriors
Will the name change for the warriors also mean a change in fortunes for the side? Well, Fast&Up is certainly rooting for them. Fun Fact - Baba Indrajith is a Fast&Up Athlete
! (link to Baba Indrajith Twitter)
Squad: Kannan Vignesh, N Prashid Akash, M Monokaran, RS Mokit Hariharan, J Jabez Moses, Baba Indrajith, Jagatheesan Kousik, Rajamani Jesuraj, Bharath Shankar, Alagh Prathiban, Krishna Varun Kumar, Murthy Prabhu, Jagannathan Kaushik, Adithya Ganesh, Nilesh Subramanian, Akkil Srinaath, Anthony Mannays, B Aditya, Adhithya Giridhar.
Fast&Up Reload is happy to be the #TakkaraFuel that is hydrating all the teams at the TNPL 2017 and even happier to have brothers Baba Indrajith & Baba Aparajith as our athletes! It is so apt when we say that Fast&Up #FuelsTheFinest :)
PS: You want to know more about the #TakkaraFuel that fuels the teams at TNPL? Buy it today!
This season is living up to its promise to #DoubleTheGethu, let us spread some cheer for the amazing teams at the TNPL! You tell us, which team do you feel will #DoubleTheGethu this TNPL 2017?
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