New Delhi: Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay would all be seen in action in the Ranji Trophy opener on October 6.
All-rounder Jadeja and Pujara would play for Saurashtra while Vijay and Ashwin would represent Tamil Nadu for the first round of the Ranji Trophy league stage of the 2017-2018 season. Pujara, who has been named the skipper would lead his team against Haryana at Lahli while Tamil Nadu would take on Andhra Pradesh at the M.A Chidambaram Stadium in their opening match of the season.
But the availability of both Ashwin and Jadeja depends on whether they are selected for the three-match T20I series against Australia which is scheduled to begin on October 7. The spin twins were made to sit out of the ODI squad that did well in the series against Sri Lanka as well as in the ongoing series against Australia where Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav have successfully carried the burden of leading the spin bowling attack of the team.
Although Jadeja was named in the squad for the first three ODI’s against Australia, he wasn’t selected in the playing XI and was also replaced by Axar Patel for the fourth and the fifth ODI’s.
Sitanshu Kotak, the Saurashtra coach reportedly stated that Jadeja would join the team on September 30 while Pujara would join them after fulfilling his role for Nottinghamshire in county cricket.
Ashwin, who had made his county debut earlier this year successfully helped Worcestershire clinch the Division Two title where he finished with a total of 20 wickets, with two five-wicket hauls, one of which came against Durham. He also scored 214 runs at an average of 42.8, which includes a top score of 82 in the 137-run thrashing of Durham.
The right-handed Pujara accumulated 333 runs from 12 innings, averaging 27.75.
Murali Vijay, who was recovering from a wrist injury he had sustained during the Border-Gavaskar series earlier this year played for India Green in the recently concluded Duleep Trophy where he scored just 17 runs but picked up five wickets with the pink ball.