Next year’s IPL will mark an end to the two-year journey of Rising Pune Supergiants and Gujarat Lions, teams who had a makeshift role to play with the suspension of Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings. Despite having no experience as a franchise, the Lions showed tremendous promise to stay at the top of the tables by the end of the group stages, even though their debut sisters, the Pune team, languished at the bottom.
Also read: Mohammad Kaif appointed assistant coach of Gujarat Lions
With fresh auctions taking place for this season, the Rajkot-based franchise has retained the crux of its 2016 players, most of whom performed as was expected of them. Dwayne Bravo’s injury, as well as the absence of a strong bowling department, will be their major points to ponder over when they go into the auction. Here’s what they might look to buy:
Irfan Pathan
Baroda-boy Irfan’s career has gone on a downslide ever since Greg Chappell and gang tried to mould him into a complete all-rounder. Prior to that, his left arm swing was unmatched by any other young talent in the early 2000s. He might not be as effective as his old self, but he still has the knack to make the ball talk, and can be a smart buy due to his all-round prowess.
Being an IPL veteran and someone who has played for multiple franchises, his base price of Rs. 50 lakhs also makes him an affordable option to have, and the local-boy tag can help him edge out other competitors.
Chris Jordan
Dwayne Bravo, one of the best death bowlers in the IPL, is out with a hamstring injury, which will rule him out for at least the first half of the IPL. In his absence, the English pacer Chris Jordan, hailed as an able death bowler, might make the cut. He is the same mould as Dwayne Bravo, albeit a tad quicker, and can tonk the ball high and far. He is also a competent fielder, especially in the deep. His off-cutters can really be a weapon for the Lions in the closing stages of an innings.
He didn’t sparkle as much as he was expected to for the Royal Challengers Bangalore last year, but a change in franchises might do him a world of good.
Saurabh Tiwary
A hard hitting middle order batsman, the bulky 27-year old needs a new home after being released by his state-mate MS Dhoni’s Rising Pune Supergiants. A possible destination for him might be the other new team in the mix, for Gujarat badly needs a lower-middle order batsman who can fill the void between Dinesh Karthik and Ravindra Jadeja.
Also, the top-order is firepower heavy with the likes of Aaron Finch, Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith, with Suresh Raina to follow. Tiwary, with loads of IPL experience, can steady the shape if the star-studded top four misfire.
Kagiso Rabada
The youngster has impressed one and all with his control over the old ball in the death bowlers, one which had even MS Dhoni befuddled in 2015. Since then, he has been in prime form, and might offer something different from the gentle pace of Dhawal Kulkarni and Praveen Kumar, their new ball bowlers last year.
The base price of 1 crore might be the only thing that might stop the Lions from going for him wholeheartedly, but the 21-year old, who hasn’t yet played an IPL match, has an economy of 7.49 from 30 T20 games, which is going to be hard to ignore.
Thangarasu Natarajan
With an action similar to Mustafizur Rahman, budding left-arm seamer T Natarajan is coming off a successful TNPL season for the Dindigul Dragons, having snapped up ten wickets. The youngster possesses a mean yorker and can solve Lions’ death bowling problems at a cheap base price of Rs. 10 lakhs.
His only taste of the IPL was a trial with the Mumbai Indians last year. Since his first-class debut in 2015, Natarajan has picked up 27 wickets in nine games, and had a decent Inter-zonal T20 tournament where he took four wickets.
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