The Gujarat Lions (GL) are a franchise cricket team based in the city of Rajkot, Gujarat that will play in the Indian Premier League from 2016 for only two seasons.During the 2016 IPL players draft, Rajkot franchise picked Indian cricketers Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja, along with Brendon McCullum, James Faulkner and Dwayne Bravo. In an event held in New Delhi, the Rajkot based team was named as Gujarat Lions and Suresh Raina was announced as their captain.
Like Pune, Gujarat too did not spend a lot, considering that their IPL stay is only for two years as replacement for suspended team Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, due to alleged illegal betting by their respective owners. The franchise is owned by Intex Technologies. They went about smartly, with their biggest buy coming at under 4 crore.
The opening of the IPL 2016, they finish at third, defeated by Sunrisers Hyderabad in second quarter-final. In group stage, they also finished at third with 8-6 win/lost ratio.
Year wise Team Performance
Year - Position
2016 - Third
2017 - Seventh
Gujarat Lions Players for 2017
Total cost of squad after 2017 auction:
INR 55.5 crore (USD 8.284 million approx)
Strengths: A terrific top order, including Suresh Raina, Australian Aaron Finch and Brendon McCullum from New Zealand.
Weaknesses: An overseas fast bowler because they have only one specialist in Andrew Tye - bought no one.
Retention and transfers:
- Ravindra Jadeja
- James Faulkner
- Dhawal Kulkarni
- Pradeep Sangwan
- Shadab Jakati
- Dinesh Karthik
- Praveen Kumar
- Suresh Raina
- Jaydev Shah
- Brendon McCullum
- Andrew Tye
- Dwayne Bravo
- Dwayne Smith
- Aaron Finch
- Ishan Kishan
- Shivil Kaushik
Acquired in auction 2017:
- Jason Roy (INR 1 crore)
- Chirag Suri (INR 10 lakh)
- Basil Thampi (INR 85 lakh)
- Manpreet Gony (INR 60 lakh)
- Nathu Singh (INR 50 lakh)
- Munaf Patel (INR 30 lakh)
- Shubham Agarwal (INR 10 lakh)
- Tejas Baroka (INR 10 lakh)
- Pratham Singh (INR 10 lakh)
- Akshdeep Nath (INR 10 lakh)
- Shelley Shaurya (INR 10 lakh)
2017 full squad
Support Staffs/Coaches:
- Captain: Suresh Raina
- Head Coach: Brad Hodge (Australia)
- Assistant Coach: Shitanshu Kotak
- Bowling Coach: Heath Streak
- Physiotherapist: Saif Hasan Naqvi
- Video Analyst: Prasanna Agoram
Administration:
- Owner: Keshav Bansal (Intex Technologies)
- Founded: 2016
