Opener Finch’s fitness a concern for Gujarat Lions

Against Rising Pune Supergiants, the match was termed a contest between Chennai Super Kings and Chennai Super Kings as Gujarat Lions and Pune had players from the suspended franchise.

On Wednesday, it will be Rajasthan Royals versus Rajasthan Royals at the Ferozeshah Kotla. The Delhi Daredevils and Lions are a mixture of players from the Rajasthan franchise, also suspended, and are mentored by players who have played together — Rahul Dravid and Brad Hodge, and know each other’s game well.

Both teams have recorded successive wins and the one which plays better on the day will prevail. In terms of experience, Delhi might be lagging, but they make up for it with their bowling.

On the other hand, the Lions have a bunch of match winners in Aaron Finch, Brendon McCullum, Suresh Raina, Dwayne Bravo, James Faulkner and Pravin Tambe.

“If any of them fires in a particular game, it is going to be hard for the opposition. We are going to make sure their consistency keeps going through the tournament. We had a poor outing against Sunrisers but put that to bed and played strong cricket across the board,” said Lions’ head coach Hodge.

While the Lions’ batting looks stronger, a slight worry would be the fitness of opener Finch. The Australian has scored three half-centuries so far, but did not bat against Royal Challengers Bangalore due to a suspected injury. While it remains to be seen if Finch is declared fit, the Daredevils see it as an advantage. “Aaron is 50-50 at this stage. He went to Mumbai to see a specialist. He will join the team and we will assess his fitness tomorrow (Wednesday). It’s more of a precautionary thing. He had an injury in Australia and felt something wasn’t right and that’s why he came off the field in last game. He didn’t want to have the same injury so he had it tested,” said Hodge.

We had a really poor outing against Sunrisers. But we have put that to bed and I feel across the board we have played really strong cricket with bat and ball and also on the field. BRAD HODGE, Lions head coach

VIRENDRA SINGH GOSAIN / HT PHOTO With Aaron Finch’s availability uncertain, Gujarat skipper Suresh Raina will have a bigger responsibility to shoulder.