Former India allrounder Vijay Shankar has signed with Dublin Guardians, one of the six franchises in the European T20 Premier League (ETPL). This will be his second franchise T20 league stint since retiring from the IPL and Indian domestic cricket in May.

Former India batting coach Vikram Rathour, who is currently part of Rajasthan Royals' support staff in the IPL, has been appointed Dublin's head coach. He will be assisted by Ed Joyce (assistant coach), Mitchell McClenaghan (bowling coach) and John Mooney (fielding coach). Rathour recently had a stint with Sri Lanka as their consultant batting coach.

In Europe, Vijay will reunite with his former Chennai Super Kings and domestic team-mate R Ashwin, who has been appointed captain and mentor of Dublin. Former India captain and T20 World Cup-winning coach Rahul Dravid is the co-owner of the Dublin franchise in the ETPL.

New Zealand batter Daryl Mitchell will join Vijay at Dublin as a direct overseas signing. USA bowling allrounder Harmeet Singh and his compatriot Sanjay Krishnamurthi, who has had stints in the UAE's ILT20 and Guyana's Global Super League (GSL), will also be on Dublin's overseas roster.

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.

After retiring from Indian cricket, Vijay has stayed in touch with the game by playing competitive league cricket in Chennai ahead of his Lanka Premier League (LPL) stint with Kandy Royals. In the LPL, Vijay slotted in as Kandy's finisher, hitting 150 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of 145.63

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.

Dublin Guardians squad

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