I Can Only Score Runs, Selection is Not in My Hands - Abhinav Mukund

Tamil Nadu captain and opening batsman Abhinav Mukund was quite exceptional with the bat during the Vijay Hazare Trophy scoring 560 runs from nine matches. Meanwhile, leg-spinner Varun Chakravarthi also picked 22 wickets. However, despite their good work, Tamil Nadu didn’t manage to make it to the quarterfinals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

In fact, Tamil Nadu started off as one of the favourites for the tournament. Abhinav Mukund was by far the highest run-getter of the season. However, there were several injuries in the Tamil Nadu camp.

Pacer Yo Mahesh joined the likes of T Natarajan and Vignesh K on the injured list. He suffered a knee injury during the match against Assam and was subsequently ruled out of the tournament.

Left-arm pacer Natarajan injured his finger while K Vignesh suffered a Grade 1 tear on his left thigh. Vignesh had also represented India Green recently during the Duleep Trophy season.

Abhinav Mukund who was the captain of Tamil Nadu feels that his team lost a few close games. Mukund said they could have closed out the game against Jharkhand and also against Jammu and Kashmir. However, he agreed that they were completely outplayed against Haryana.

“I think we lost a couple of close games. We could have pulled it off against Jharkhand and definitely (against) Jammu and Kashmir as well. But then again, yes, we were completely outplayed against Haryana no doubt. I feel if we could have been a lot more proactive and not lost three of our best bowlers to injury, things would have been very different,” said Abhinav.

Meanwhile, Abhinav Mukund could not manage to score big runs for India Red during the Duleep Trophy. However, Mukund looked in great touch during the Vijay Hazare Trophy. He scored at an average 70 on pitches which had nothing on offer for the bowlers. However, Mukund feels that selection is not in his hands despite being in great touch during the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

“Selection is not in my hands. All I can do is score runs. And if I do good, definitely people will take notice. All I know is that I would look forward to continuing to enjoy batting.”

Abhinav Mukund will hope to continue his good form in the upcoming tournament. The southpaw batsman will look to grab his opportunity with both hands.