Vijay, Ashwin and Dravid go back a long way, having played local league cricket together in Chennai in the early 2010s. Vijay also worked with Dravid when both were part of the India A set-up.
Vijay had scored 223 ODI runs in 12 games at an average of 31.85 and a strike rate of 90.65, and 101 T20I runs in nine matches at 25.25 and 138.35. He played most of his domestic cricket for Tamil Nadu, captaining them to title wins in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, Deodhar Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy before moving to Tripura ahead of the 2025-26 season. He ended his domestic career with a bang, scoring an unbeaten, Player-of-the-Match-winning 151* in a Ranji Trophy victory over Gujarat in February.
In all, Vijay made 4253 runs in first-class cricket at an average of 46.73, 2790 List A runs at 34.87, and 2583 T20 runs at an average of 26.09 and a strike rate of 128.37. He also took 154 wickets in 348 games across formats.
In the IPL, he represented Chennai Super Kings, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Delhi Daredevils and Gujarat Titans. He was part of the SRH side that won the title in 2016.
In the draft in late June, Dublin snapped up Benjamin Calitz, George Dockrell, Matthew Hollard, Craig Young, Noah Croes and Chris Greaves.
The inaugural season of the ETPL will run from August 26 to September 20 in Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands. The league, launched in partnership with Cricket Ireland, Cricket Scotland and the Royal Dutch Cricket Association, features teams from Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. It is also Europe’s first ICC-sanctioned multi-country franchise T20 league.
R Ashwin (capt), Vijay Shankar, Harry Tector, George Dockrell, James Vince, Daryl Mitchell, Muhammad Waseem, Noah Croes, Ben Calitz, Harmeet Singh, Josh Little, Matthew Hollard, Craig Young, Chris Greaves, Peter Hatzoglou, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Chris Wood
