Difficult draft, but all teams say they got good returns

“It is a different draft, and a difficult draft,” said former Indian opener VB Chandrasekhar, the owner of Thiruvallur Veerans. “You walk in to pick 19 (marked) players but if you are in the sixth position, you end up losing more. However, TN have such a good pool of talent that there were still many options,” he said. 

If Chandrasekhar’s focus was on a young team to build for the future, a few others were in the present moment, trying to be practical. “I am not singling out any player because cricket is a team sport,” said Sivanthi Adityan, whose Chepauk Super Gillies, have a good blend of experience and youth. “We have a fantastic squad and 10 of them are from the districts, which is more than half the number of the full team.”

The top bidder, Thoothukudi walked away with three in the top category and two of them Dinesh Karthik and Washington Sundar, will be the envy of others.

Surprisingly, their third pick, Lakshmipathy Balaji, was available even after the sixth round but then as explained by Chepauk’s coach Hemang Badani, “Bala has not played much cricket recently.” Thoothukudi will have Abhinav Mukund to partner Karthik at the top. 

Chepauk’s opening pair of Thalaivan Sargunam and KH Gopinath is formidable. Captain R Sathish and Vasanth Saravanan are the big names in the middle order and their pace bowling duo of Yo Mahesh and Anthony Dhas are also good all-rounders.

No 3 bidder Coimbatore picked up Murali Vijay as their top pick knowing that he will not be available for some matches but their captain will be all-rounder Syed Mohammed. They have a problem with Vijay Shankar, who is injured, but the team clarified it chose him with the future in mind. 

HR Srinivasan, owner of Dinidigul franchise, said he is delighted with the team “starting with our first pick of R Ashwin.” His team has picked 10 all-rounders, two wicketkeepers and left-arm spinners as well. He thought he had a very balanced team. 

KC Shyam Kangayan, owner of Kancheepuram franchise, said he has picked a young side. “We feel that we have the right team combination and the average age group of players we have picked 20-23 years. I think we have the youngest team in the league. This was our goal from the start and we have very good support staff.”