Ashwin to play Ranji match vs Mumbai

Tamil Nadu on Wednesday named a strong team comprising ace off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and the experienced Dinesh Karthik and Abhinav Mukund for the next two Ranji Trophy games against Mumbai and Railways.

The team led by Vijay Shankar will take on Mumbai at the M A Chidambaram stadium in Chennai from January 11 followed by the clash against Railways from January 19.

Ashwin, who played the first two matches of the season, against Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh, which Tamil Nadu lost, returns to the squad for the crucial game against Mumbai.

Karthik and left-handed opener Mukund too are back after having missed three matches. They featured in the first match against Karnataka.

Test discard Murali Vijay, however, is not part of the squad, having missed out since the season-opener against Karnataka at Dindigul.

According to a TNCA press release, the team includes Ashwin and two other spinners -- R Sai Kishore and M Siddharth -- and pacers in T Natarajan and K Vignesh.

Squad: Vijay Shankar (captain), Abhinav Mukund, Ganga Sridhar Raju, Suryap Prakash, Kaushik Gandhi, B Aparajith, Dinesh Karthik, R Ashwin, R Sai Kishore, M Siddharth, T Natarajan, N Jagadeesan, K Vignesh, K Mukunth, Pradosh Ranjan Paul.