Yes, you heard it right. Sir Ravindra Jadeja, world’s no. 1 all-rounder, is all set to make a comeback to the Gujarat Lions outfit. He will surely bring along the balance the team needs at times when they are not looking good. Wait, wait, we are not done yet. The IPL specialist, Manoj Tiwary, will also be making a return to the Rising Pune Supergiant outfit to bolster their batting unit.
Lions won both the matches last season and did so by overhauling targets of 164 in Rajkot and 196 in Pune. So, yes, it is RPS who would look to break that trend.
Understanding MS Dhoni’s waning prowess in T20, Sourav Ganguly has expressed his reservations about the Pune wicketkeeper being “a good T20 player” any longer.
Steven Smith will be the danger man from RPS, whereas Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith will hold the key at the top of the order.
There will be question marks over whether Ashoke Dinda will start or not as he has been too expensive in the previous games. Chances are Shardul Thakur could get in his place.
“Whether it is bowling or batting, I want to contribute for the team.” – @imjadeja. #GLvRPS #GameMaariChhehttps://t.co/NiSIawrlhW
— The Gujarat Lions (@TheGujaratLions) April 14, 2017
The likely XIs
Rising Pune Supergiant: 1 Ajinkya Rahane, 2 Mayank Agarwal, 3 Steven Smith 4 Ben Stokes, 5 MS Dhoni (wk), 6 Manoj Tiwary, 7 Rajat Bhatia, 8 Adam Zampa, 9 Deepak Chahar, 10 Imran Tahir, 11 Ashok Dinda/Shardul Thakur
Gujarat Lions: 1 Jason Roy, 2 Brendon McCullum, 3 Suresh Raina (capt), 4 Aaron Finch, 5 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 James Faulkner, 8 Praveen Kumar, 9 Tejas Baroka/Basil Thampi, 10 Dhawal Kulkarni, 11 Shivil Kaushik
