India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin will be participating in the Tamil Nadu Premier League (2023) after joining the Dindigul Dragons soon. Ashwin reached Chennai early Tuesday morning after finishing his international assignment with Team India.
The TNPL 2023 kicked off on Monday with Lyca Kovai Kings beating IDream Tiruppur Tamizhans by 70 runs in the opening match in Coimbatore.
Ashwin's team Dindigul Dragons will begin their campaign against Ba11sy Trichy on June 14. The 36-year-old posted about his homecoming and confirmed the news of his joining the TNPL team through his social media account.
"Closure! TNPL calling @dindigul Dragons," Ashwin wrote on his Insta story.
Ashwin's exclusion hurts Team India
Ashwin was not included in India's playing XI in last week's ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final which the team lost by 209 runs against Australia at The Oval in London.
His exclusion in favour of an extra-seamer in the playing XI drew a lot of flak from the Indian cricketing fraternity and the decision backfired on Rohit Sharma' side as they failed to take 20 wickets in the Test match.
Even Sachin Tendulkar was baffled by the team management's decision to leave out India's highest wicket-taker in the WTC this year from the summit clash.
Tendulkar baffled by Indian team selection
"I fail to understand the exclusion of Ashwin in the playing XI, who is currently the number one Test bowler in the world," Tendulkar tweeted on Sunday.
"Like I had mentioned before the match, skilful spinners don't always rely on turning tracks, they use drift in the air and bounce off the surface to disguise their variations. Not to forget, Australia had 5 left-handers out of their top 8 batters."
For the record, Ashwin had picked up 61 wickets in 13 Tests in the two-year cycle of the second WTC edition.
