Down and out, IPL future at stake for Lions’ players
It was altogether a different ball game last season when Gujarat Lions opted to play their last two league matches of the Indian Premier League at the Green Park stadium here. The team had already qualified for the play-offs and their matches remained formality before going to the knockout rounds.
But within a year’s time, things changed dramatically as Suresh Raina-led team is not only out of contention of play-offs, but also of the cash-rich league, which had allowed the Gujarat– based franchise only two seasons of existence.
“It makes no difference to us. We are not thinking about what happened last season, but aiming for a repeat of last season when we won both our final league matches here,” Gujarat Lions’ seamer Pradeep Sangwan told HT on Tuesday.
“We are looking forward for a superb showing here as we want to finish at a high as performance of each and every individual would make a big difference when we go to the next edition of the IPL as individuals,” he added.
PLAYING FOR PRIDE
In reality, no chance is left for both Gujarat Lions and Delhi Daredevils to make it count in terms of play-offs when they square against each other in an IPL game here on Wednesday. This would also be the penultimate IPL game for the venue, which was chosen by Gujarat Lions as their alternate home ground only last season.
A high-scoring game between the two sides kept entertaining fans at Ferozshah Kotla ground last week, when Delhi Daredevils had a convincing sevenwicket win against Gujarat Lions. Leading from the front captain Suresh Raina has already set an example of perfect batting style in ‘fatafat’ cricket, and had done well in the past at this ground, which happens to be the home venue for Raina and his boys in Ranji Trophy.
The only crisis for the home side is the limited availability of fit players and in such a scenario besides Raina, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja along with Ishan Kishan would have to shoulder bigger responsibility in batting as their bowling attack comprising Basil Thampi, Pradeep Sangwan, Dhawal Kulkarni, Irfan Pathan, Ankit Soni, Nathu Singh, Praveen Kumar and even James Faulker, has failed to impress throughout the season.
With Brendon McCullam joining the list of injured players, there is a possibility of first UAE player Chirag Suri getting a chance to make his IPL debut.
For Delhi Daredevils, all eyes would be on Sanju Samson and Rishabh Pant, who enjoyed the tooth-less bowling attack of Gujarat Lions in the last game, hitting sparkling half centuries to help the team get past Lions’ massive 209-run target.
The pressure of bowling well against Raina and Co would certainly be on the Delhi men as their best bowler in that previous faceoff Kagiso Rabada along with Chris Morris, has returned for national duty.