The other debutante this season is the Gujarat Lions, captained by Suresh Raina. The team looks promising, with Brendon McCullum, James Faulkner, Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja at the helm.
Careful bidding has helped the Lions; they’ve managed to keep bidding till the end. The tried and tested Dwayne Smith, Dinesh Karthik, Dale Steyn, Praveen Kumar and Aaron Finch have joined the team. These players haven’t come cheap; they’ve set Gujarat back by a minimum of a crore each. Praveen Kumar was Gujarat’s most expensive buy- going at Rs 3.5 cr.
Ausie T20 skipper Aaron Finch joined the party a little late: the cricketer was sold for his base price of Rs 1 cr in the second round of the auctions.
The Gujarat team isn’t nearly as well-balanced as the Pune team; they’ve bid for a disproportionate number of bowlers. Can Brendon McCullum and James Faulkner see them through? Or will the all-rounders come through for them?
The Team
1. Suresh Raina (captain)
2. Brendon McCullum
3. James Faulkner
4. Dwanye Bravo
5. Ravindra Jadeja
6. Dwayne Smith
7. Dinesh Karthik
8. Dale Steyn
9. Praveen Kumar
10. Dhawal Kulkarni
11. Aaron Finch
12. Eklavya Dwivedi
13. Ishan Kishan
14. Pravin Tambe
15. Pradeep Sangwan
16. Shivil Kaushik
17. Sarabjit Ladda
18. Umang Sharma
19. Paras Dogra
20. Shadab Jakati
21. Andrew Tye
22. Akshdeep Nath
23. Jaydev Shah
24. Amit Mishra