Tamil Nadu Premier League 2017: All you need to know about TNPL 2017

After the success of the inaugural edition of the Tamil Nadu Premier League, the tournament is back for the second edition that kicks off on 22 July 2017. Albert TUTI Patriots, who are the defending champions kick off the tournament as they take on Dindigul Dragons at the M.A Chidambaram stadium in Chennai.

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The stars who made the first edition a huge success are back once again as are a new batch of young players who will be looking to make their mark on the tournament. Although the tournament has been unable to get the clearance for out-station players such as Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan and Yuzvendra Chahal, who expressed interest in taking part in the tournament, there are still plenty of stars on display.

Here is Everything you need to know about the Tamil Nadu Premier League 2017:

Changes from the inaugural edition

There is just one main change to the second edition of the TNPL and that is 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 through to the final.

The other slight change as far as the tournament is concerned is the timings of the matches. Unlike last year, matches this year will begin at 7.30 PM apart from days in which there are two matches, wherein they will be played at 3.30 PM and 7.30 PM.

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.

And following in the footsteps of the Pune franchise, the Madurai franchise have decided to drop the “s” at the end of their name and will be Madurai Super Giant and will be looking to replicate the performance of Pune, who made it to the final of IPL 2017.

Squads

TUTI Patriots are well poised to defend their crown

Albert TUTI Patriots

The defending champions TUTI Patriots once again begin as the favourites and have the perfect blend of youth and experience.

Squad: Maaruthi Raghav, V Athisayaraj Davidson, Dinesh Karthik, Washington Sundar, Aswin Crist, Abhinav Mukund, Aushik Srinivas, Kaushik Gandhi, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Subramanian Anand, Akash Sumra, R Sathyanarayan, Umashankar Sushil, M Ganesh Moorthi, R Vishaal, Siddarth Ahuja, V Lakshman, SP Nathan, G Nicul Anand.

Chepauk Super Gillies

With largely the same squad that got to the final last time around, veteran 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, the two Vijays, Vijay Shankar and Murali Vijay are unlikely to take part in this year’s tournament owing to the India A tour and injury respectively.

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 inaugural edition of the tournament, Dragons failed to make the final and they will be looking to correct that this time around.

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-name players, Madurai Super Giant have some youngsters who could spring up a surprise or two.

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 available for the entire duration of the tournament, Veerans will be looking to make the most of the experienced support staff and go through to the playoffs.

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

With the ideal mix of exciting youngsters, including a 14-year-old and some experience, Kaalai are one 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

The Warriors will be hoping that a change in name brings forward a change in fortunes for the side.

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.

Venues

Chepauk will be one of the three venues used in the tournament

Much like the inaugural edition of the tournament, it will be the same three venues that will host the tournament. In Tirunelveli, it will be at the India Cements Company Ground, at Dindigul, the NPR College Ground will be the venue while the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai will be the other venue.

The only major change in terms of the venues is the fact that the stadium in Chennai will host the least number of matches (8) despite hosting the first qualifier and the final.

Compared to the 10 matches that was played in Dindigul last year, there will be 11 this time around while the India Cements Company Ground in Tirunelveli will host 13 matches, four more than in the inaugural edition.

The other two playoff matches will be played at Dindigul and Tirunelveli respectively.

Schedule

Who will take home the trophy in the second edition?

32 matches will be played across three venues in Tamil Nadu from July 22- August 20 by eight teams hoping to be crowned champions of the second edition of the Tamil Nadu Premier League.

Here is the full schedule for the second edition of the TNPL.

Match NoDateTimeFixture Venue122 July 20177.30 pmAlbert Tuti Patriots vs Dindigul DragonsMA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai223 July 20177.30 pmLYCA Kovai Kings vs Karaikudi KaalaiICL Ground, Tirunelveli324 July 20177.30 pmChepauk Super Gillies vs

VB Thiruvallur Veerans

ICL Ground, Tirunelveli425 July 20177.30 pmMadurai Super Giant vs Dindigul DragonsNPR College Ground, Dindigul526 July 20177.30 pmRuby Trichy Warriors vs Albert Tuti PatriotsNPR College Ground, Dindigul627 July 20177.30 pmMadurai Super Giant vs Karaikudi KaalaiICL Ground, Tirunelveli728 July 20177.30 pmDindigul Dragons vs

VB Thiruvallur Veerans

ICL Ground, Tirunelveli829 July 20177.30 pmChepauk Super Gillies vs LYCA Kovai KingsMA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai930 July 20173.30 pmKaraikudi Kaalai vs Albert Tuti PatriotsICL Ground, Tirunelveli1030 July 20177.30 pmVB Thiruvallur Veerans vs Ruby Trichy WarriorsICL Ground, Tirunelveli1131 July 20177.30 pmLYCA Kovai Kings vs Dindigul DragonsNPR College Ground, Dindigul121 Aug 20177.30 pmChepauk Super Gillies vs Albert Tuti PatriotsICL Ground, Tirunelveli132 Aug 20173.30 pmKaraikudi Kaalai vs VB Thiruvallur VeeransNPR College Ground, Dindigul142 Aug 20177.30 pmRuby Trichy Warriors vs Madurai Super GiantNPR College Ground, Dindigul153 Aug 20177.30 pmAlbert Tuti Patriots vs LYCA Kovai KingsICL Ground, Tirunelveli164 Aug 20177.30 pmKaraikudi Kaalai vs Chepauk Super GilliesMA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai175 Aug 20173.30 pmDindigul Dragons vs Ruby Trichy WarriorsICL Ground, Tirunelveli185 Aug 20177.30 pmVB Thiruvallur Veerans vs Albert Tuti PatriotsICL Ground, Tirunelveli196 Aug 20177.30 pmMadurai Super Giant vs Chepauk Super GilliesMA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai207 Aug 20177.30 pmDindigul Dragons vs Karaikudi KaalaiICL Ground, Tirunelveli218 Aug 20177.30 pmMadurai Super Giant vs VB Thiruvallur VeeransICL Ground, Tirunelveli229 Aug 20177.30 pmChepauk Super Gillies vs Ruby Trichy WarriorsNPR College Ground, Dindigul2310 Aug 20177.30 pmLYCA Kovai Kings vs Madurai Super GiantNPR College Ground, Dindigul2411 Aug 20177.30 pmKaraikudi Kaalai vs Ruby Trichy WarriorsNPR College Ground, Dindigul2512 Aug 20177.30 pmVB Thiruvallur Veerans vs LYCA Kovai KingsMA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai2613 Aug 20173.30 pmAlbert Tuti Patriots vs Madurai Super GiantNPR College Ground, Dindigul2713 Aug 20177.30 pmDindigul Dragons vs Chepauk Super GilliesNPR College Ground, Dindigul2814 Aug 20177.30 pmRuby Trichy Warriors vs LYCA Kovai KingsMA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai2915 Aug 20177.30 pmQualifier 1MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai3016 Aug 20177.30 pmEliminatorNPR College Ground, Dindigul3118 Aug 20177.30 pmQualifier 2ICL Ground, Tirunelveli3220 Aug 20177.30 pmFinalMA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai

You can download the pdf schedule here.