Ignored for India's Twenty20 series against Australia, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was on Tuesday named in the 15-member Tamil Nadu Ranji squad along with Test opener Murali Vijay for the season-opener against Andhra Pradesh, starting Friday.
The team, to be led by Abhinav Mukund, would miss the services of the experienced batsman-wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik and all-rounder Vijay Shankar.
Karthik has been picked for the T20 series against Australia while Shankar features in the Board President's XI to face New Zealand.
The team includes exciting all-rounder Washington Sundar, who has impressed with his recent performances including in the Duleep Trophy final.
Baba Indrajith, who scored a double ton on his Duleep Trophy debut, would be Mukund's deputy.
The team also features aggressive wicketkeeper-batsman N Jagadeesan and another gloveman in R Rohith, who shone in the recent Tamil Nadu Premier league (TNPl).
In the absence of T Natarajan and Aswin Crist due to fitness issues, the pace attack would be led by K Vignesh, who did well in his debut season with 30-plus wickets as Tamil Nadu made the semifinals.
l Vignesh and V lakshman are the other pacemen named in the squad.