Gujarat Lions (GL) are out of the race of reaching the playoffs but at the toss, their skipper Suresh Raina did something bizarre after winning the toss. Over the years we have seen teams struggling to find the combination and cribbing about the Indian Premier League’s (IPL)rule that they could include only 4 overseas players in the playing XI but Raina’s this decision shocked everyone as it is one of a king in this season.
Raina, after winning the toss and opting to bowl first against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), announced his team which featured only three overseas players in the side— Dwayne Smith, Aaron Finch and James Faulkner. After their in-form bowling all-rounder, Andrew Tye got ruled out of the tournament due to an injury, Raina is struggling to find the perfect death overs bowler to prevent the score from posting a big score.
Here’s our Playing XI for tonight’s game. #GameMaariChhe #KXIPvGL pic.twitter.com/85yiqjN7n2
— The Gujarat Lions (@TheGujaratLions) May 7, 2017
With Brendon McCullum too ruled out of IPL 2017 due to a hamstring injury, almost everyone expected them to replace him with Jason Roy but he stunned everyone by including Dhawal Kulkarni on the side. Though by keeping Kulkarni, GL boost their bowling department and also add experience to it but they might have opted for an explosive batsman as Smith has not been in his prime this tournament.
GL are playing for pride now as they have already been knocked out of the race to IPL 2017 playoffs. They are currently in 7th place with 3 wins from 11 games.
GL’s Playing XI: Dwayne Smith, Ishan Kishan, Suresh Raina(c), Dinesh Karthik(wk), Aaron Finch, Ravindra Jadeja, James Faulkner, Dhawal Kulkarni, Pradeep Sangwan, Basil Thampi, Ankit Soni
