Tamil Nadu split coaches mid-season after Ranji Trophy struggles

Winless after four rounds of the Ranji Trophy, Tamil Nadu have restructured their coaching set-up with former left-arm-spinner M Venkataramana set to take over from M Senthilnathan as head coach for the white-ball leg of the Indian domestic season.

Senthilnathan will, however, see out the remainder of the Ranji season; the two remaining rounds of matches will be played in January after the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

TN are currently in the bottom half of Group A, just above Odisha and Nagaland. In the ongoing fifth round, they are in a fight for survival for first-innings points thanks to Rinku Singh, despite posting 455.

TN have already lost outright to Jharkhand and Andhra, while conceding a lead against Vidarbha, the defending champions. They also nearly couldn't defend 512 against Nagaland for the first-innings honours. It is likely that even victories in TN's remaining two fixtures won't be enough to secure a Ranji Trophy knockouts berth

While the timing - right in the middle of their fifth-round game against Uttar Pradesh in Coimbatore - may seem off, there have been rumblings of such a move at the top from within the TNCA since their fourth-round defeat to Andhra.

The decision was finally taken and approved at an emergency meeting in Chennai on Tuesday, with the TNCA announcing via a press release late at night that they were adopting a split-coaching model for the remainder of 2025-26. TNCA's release didn't specify if Senthilnathan would continue beyond the current Ranji season.

Venkataramana played one Test for India in 1989, against West Indies in Kingston. He represented TN in 75 first-class matches, picking up 247 wickets at an average of 29.63 and 12 five-fors.

This is the third coaching change TN have made in the past two years. In 2023-24, there were similar rumblings, but from within the team against former Mumbai wicketkeeper Sulakshan Kulkarni. He was then removed as head coach barely a year into his two-year contract, with L Balaji, the former India fast bowler, taking over. Prior to the start of the 2025-26 season, Senthilnathan, a former chief selector, took over from Balaji.

Earlier in the week, TN named Varun Chakravarthy as captain for the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s. This will mark Chakravarthy's first foray into a leadership role, after three other contenders - M Shahrukh Khan, R Sai Kishore and N Jagadeesan - were overlooked.

At Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s, TN are placed in a tough pool alongside Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Tripura, Jharkhand and Saurashtra.