Hardik Pandya, Rashid Khan, and Shubman Gill are all set to join the Ahmedabad franchise for the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2022).
According to ESPNcricinfo, the Ahmedabad franchise is keen on making Hardik Pandya as captain. The IPL committee has set INR 15 crore, INR 11 crore and INR 7 crore for franchises retaining three players, but reports suggest that the franchise has decided to pay both Pandya and Rashid INR 15 crore while Gill will get INR 7 crore.
In his long stint with Mumbai Indians, Hardik Pandya was never projected as a captain-in-waiting even after playing as the number 1 all-rounder across formats for team India. Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) surprisingly didn’t retain the spin wizard Rashid Khan and so was the case with Shubman Gill as he wasn’t one of the retained players for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). These players will form the core of the new Ahmedabad franchise and the rest of the squad is likely to he build around them with Pandya leading the side.
The auction is going to take place on February 12 and 13, 2022. The venue of the 2022 IPL auction in Bengaluru. The two new franchises – Ahmedabad and Lucknow – have been given a deadline to pick their players by January 22. These new teams cannot sign more than one uncapped player and they are permitted to pay more than the stipulated fee on the condition that they would lose that much money from the salary cap of Rs 90 crore.
While the eight previous IPL teams retained four players each from their previous rosters, the two new teams now get to choose three cricketers from all the remaining players and add them to their squads. According to several reports, Lucknow is in talks with KL Rahul for the captainship role. Moreover, the team might use the title Lucknow Scorchers for IPL 2022. Ravi Bishnoi & Marcus Stoinis could join KL Rahul.
