2017-18 Ranji Trophy: 5 things that went wrong for Tamil Nadu this season 

Abhinav Mukund, Murali Vijay, R Ashwin, Dinesh Karthik, Vijay Shankar, Baba twins, Washington Sundar, K Vignesh, these were the names that were included in the Tamil Nadu squad at the start of the season. The team looked strong on paper and the semi-finalists from the last season came into the Ranji Trophy as one of the title favourites.

But, to everyone's surprise, the Abhinav-led side were knocked out of India's premier tournament after the first round, finishing fourth in their group which had the likes of Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra, Tripura, Assam and Baroda.

They drew five out of their six matches, taking the first-innings lead in three of them, before losing their last group game against Baroda, ending the season without a single win under their belt.

A lot of things went against them. Let us take a look at five reasons behind Tamil Nadu's dismal performance in the Ranji Trophy.

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Lack of good spinners in the side

Over the years, Tamil Nadu has had the knack of producing a lot of good spin bowlers which is evident from the fact that the likes of Srinivas Venkataraghavan, R Ashwin, VV Kumar etc. have come up the TN ranks. The wicket at the MA Chidambaram Stadium is traditionally a rank turner and that is considered to be one of the reasons why the state has produced a lot of spin bowlers.

Unfortunately, the ongoing domestic season saw TN struggle without a frontline spinner and it is one of the main reasons why they failed to make it to the next round. All-rounder Washington Sundar, who bowled just 153 overs in 11 innings, was the best spinner in the TN squad as he ended the season with 12 wickets at an average of 35.66 and a strike-rate of 76, numbers that are not bad for a spinner whose primary job is not to bowl regularly.

The team's experienced spinner Rahil Shah failed miserably this season as he managed to take only nine wickets at an average of 54.3 and a strike-rate of 105. Rahil bowled in four fewer innings and bowled four more overs when compared to Washington without any reward. He was dropped for the last few matches and replaced by R Sai Kishore, who managed to take just three wickets in six innings in the tournament.

Malolan Rangarajan, who is also an experienced spinner, played just one match in the tournament and returned home with an empty hand from the 21 overs he bowled. Even R Ashwin, who played three matches for TN, managed just 11 wickets at an average of 40.

No support to K Vignesh

Ever since he made his first-class debut for Tamil Nadu last season, K Vignesh has been the side's go-to bowler as he has taken 61 wickets in 15 matches at an average of 21.86, numbers that are very good for a fast bowler who bowls in India.

Even this season, the right-arm pacer has accounted for 24 wickets in six matches at an average of 21.5 and a strike-rate of 50. But, there was no supporting cast for the 23-year-old as none of the other pacers reached double digits in the wicket taker's column.

There is no better way to put forward the state of Tamil Nadu's pace attack than pointing out the fact that Vignesh alone has taken 24 wickets in the tournament while all his fellow pacers have taken a combined total of 21 wickets.

The experience of Aswin Crist and T Natarajan, who were the backbones of TN's pace attack last season, was sorely missed this season due to injuries.

Usage of Washington Sundar

Teenage all-rounder Washington Sundar had a decent outing in his first full season in the Ranji Trophy in which he starred with both bat and ball.

In spite of being a spinner, Washington was not used well by the skipper as he bowled 153 overs in the tournament. On most occasions, he was the team's sixth bowler and came on to bowl only when the regulars needed some rest.

With the bat, Washington scored a swashbuckling 159 against Tripura in the second match of the season. In that match, he opened the innings after Murali Vijay was forced to miss the game due to a neck injury.

After that match, Washington was moved to number seven or eight, which was unfair, especially after having played a brilliant knock in the previous match. In the 2017-18 Ranji Trophy, he scored 315 runs in eight innings at an average of 40.

Lack of motivation

One of the main things needed to maintain top spot is for the players to have the desire to win. Irrespective of the situation, a player should give his 100% and look to win the match for his team. Settling for anything less than a win is not a winner's mentality.

In the ongoing Ranji Trophy, this quality was absent in few of the Tamil Nadu players as it looked like the players were happy to settle for three points with a first-innings lead rather than going for the six points with an outright win.

The batsmen didn't show any intent to score quick runs as only two of them who scored over 250 runs in the season had a strike-rate of over 55. Scoring at 3.2 runs per over for over five sessions in a four-day game will not benefit the team at all.

Adding to this, the players dropped a lot of catches. Washington Sundar dropped Ashwin Hebbar when Andhra were 60-odd for the loss of five wickets in TN's first match of the season and the batsman went on to register a fifty, helping his side take a big first-innings lead.

Even in the game against Odisha, TN conceded the first-innings lead even after scoring 530, thanks to a handful of dropped catches from the fielders and the substitute wicketkeeper R Rohith.

No notable contributions from the big names

Over the last few seasons, the likes of Murali Vijay, R Ashwin, Abhinav Mukund, Dinesh Karthik and Vijay Shankar have been the backbone of the Tamil Nadu side, along with the Baba twins. B Aparajith and B Indrajith were TN's best performers of this season along with K Vignesh and Washington Sundar.

The likes of Yo Mahesh and Narayan Jagadeesan scored some crucial runs when needed. Apart from these names, there were no notable contributions from the other players. The likes of Vijay, Karthik, Ashwin and Vijay Shankar were not available for the whole season, due to their India and India A commitments. To be fair, Vijay, Ashwin and Vijay Shankar did a decent job when they turned out for TN.

Captain Abhinav, who has been prolific in the past, scoring over 750 runs in each season, managed just 247 runs in nine innings at an average of 30, numbers that are not good for a player of Abhinav's calibre. His captaincy was also not up to the mark as the players remained defensive on most occasions and few of his strategies were questionable.

Along with Abhinav, Kaushik Gandhi, who scored over 750 runs last season, scored just 91 runs in six innings this season and that didn't help the team's cause. With the big guns misfiring, Tamil Nadu found themselves knocked out of the tournament after the first round.

Injuries to some of their key players didn't help their cause either.