Tamil Nadu eyes first win against Odisha in clash between laggards

On the eve of his team’s penultimate Group-A Ranji Trophy fixture against Odisha at the KIIT Stadium here from Thursday, Tamil Nadu red-ball coach M. Senthilnathan said he has encouraged his side to treat the contest as a complete reset, underlining the need to move on from an underwhelming domestic season across formats.

“We can’t change what happened. We can change what’s in front,” he said on Wednesday.

He stressed that the team is approaching the Odisha match “with a positive mind to definitely win the game.”

Tamil Nadu will be without its top run-getter Baba Indrajith due to personal reasons, but Senthilnathan framed it as an opportunity for “one of the youngsters” in the squad rather than a setback.

Middle-order batter Nidhish S. Rajagopal, medium-pacer G. Govinth, and wicketkeeper-batter M. Vishal have been called up to the squad, and the coach said that, if need be, “even all three of them have a chance to debut.”

Having had a look at the pitch, Senthilnathan expects early assistance for the pacers. “There’s a lot of grass. Initially, for one and a half to two hours, there will be some deviation.”

Should Tamil Nadu bowl, the returning Gurjapneet Singh could get an early look at the conditions. Admitting that the left-armer has been the team’s best pacer this red-ball season, Senthilnathan said: “The only thing is that we didn’t get support for him. If somebody had performed even half of what he was able to, we probably would have won matches.”

Spin-bowling all-rounder S. Mohamed Ali, left-arm spinner P. Vidyuth, and off-spinner J. Hemchudeshan also return for Tamil Nadu. Batters B. Sachin and R. Vimal Khumar, along with bowlers P. Saravana Kumar, Sandeep Warrier, and C.V. Achyuth, have been left out.

Odisha, sixth on the points table and just above the winless Tamil Nadu (seventh), will draw confidence from its position and look to captain Subhranshu Senapati and Swastik Samal with the bat, and pacers Badal Biswal and Sambit Baral with off-spinner Govinda Poddar with the ball.