India’s all-rounder Hardik Pandya and opening batter Shubman Gill are all set to join the Ahmedabad franchise for IPL 2022, as reported by ESPN Cricinfo.
Rashid Khan, former Sunrisers Hyderabad’s spinner is also set to join hands with the Ahmedabad franchise.
All of these players were not retained by their respective previous franchises and thus Ahmedabad and Lucknow, the two new IPL teams, had the chance to rope in their services before the mega auction.
It has also been reported that Hardik Pandya will take the captaincy role for the Ahmedabad team. Pandya doesn’t have any leadership experience thus far and it will be interesting to note how he will go about his business if he is given the extra responsibility.
While the IPL has set INR 15 crore, INR 11 crore, and INR 7 crore for franchises retaining three players, it has been reported that Pandya and Rashid Khan will get INR 15 crore each while Shubman Gill has been roped in for INR 7 crore. Thus, Ahmedabad will enter the mega auction with the remaining purse value of INR 53 crore. (Total purse value is INR 90 crore)
On the other hand, Ashish Nehra is reported to be the head coach of the franchise while Gary Kirsten will be the batting coach. Former England batter Vikram Rathore will be the director of cricket. In fact, the same coaching trio has worked together for Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya was picked as an uncapped player back in IPL 2015 by Mumbai Indians for only INR 10 lakh and since then he has taken giant strides as a player. Pandya has scored 1476 runs in 92 IPL matches while he has scalped 42 wickets. However, Pandya has been struggling with his fitness since his back injury and hasn’t bowled at all in the last two seasons.
Rashid Khan is well known to bamboozle the best in the business with his spin wizardry. Khan has scalped 93 wickets in 76 IPL matches at an impressive economy rate of 6.33.
Gill has scored 1417 runs in 58 IPL matches at an average of 31.5 but has a paltry strike rate of 123.
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