Rajkot: Suresh Raina and his men made a huge impact in their maiden Indian Premier League last season where they looked like the team to beat. With several big-hitters in the squad, the Lions roared throughout the tournament but witnessed a rough match when it mattered the most – in qualifiers.
Gujarat Lions were in sensational form in their maiden season where they ended up being at the top of the points table. However, the team suffered two heartbreaking losses in the qualifiers where they were beaten by Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
At the IPL auction this year, the management was keen on strengthening the bowling line-up as a result of which they roped some known domestic names in Manpreet Gony, Munaf Patel, Nathu Singh and Pradeep Sangwan. They have retained their key players from the previous season, and with the likes of Suresh Raina, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja and James Faulkner in the team, there is no reason why the team cannot win the tournament this year.
With Champions Trophy scheduled to begin in June, the IPL 10 is a make or break situation for Raina, who has been out of the Indian team for quite some time and was also recently dropped by the BCCI from the list of contractual players.
Captain: Suresh Raina
Coach: Brad Hodge
Best Performance: 2016 play-off.
Likely playing XI: Brendon McCullum, Jason Roy, Dwayne Smith, Suresh Raina (c), Dinesh Karthik (wk), James Faulkner, Shivil Kaushik, Ishan Kishan, Shadab Jakati, Praveen Kumar, Dhawal Kulkarni
Players to watch out for: Suresh Raina, Brendon McCullum, Aaron Finch, James Faulkner, Dhawal Kulkarni.
