The Rajkot franchise has been named the Gujarat Lions and it will be led by Suresh Raina. “Imagine, (Ravindra) Jadeja celebrating Dhoni’s dismissal”, he laughed, alluding to the fact the Jadeja, also a former Chennai star, will now be Raina’s teammate and on the other side of the fence from Dhoni. This year, there will be two new franchises with Gujarat and Pune taking the places of CSK and Rajasthan Royals, another team that was discarded in the wake of the 2013 spot-fixing scandal. The bidding for the two teams this time was done through a reverse auction where the company that bids the lowest (lowest share of IPL’s central pool revenue) would be the victor. “I am excited to play for Gujarat Lions now”.
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Bansal informs that the team’s name has been chosen via online poll. “It will be a challenge for us on how to stop Dhoni’s helicopter shot”. Fast scoring Indian southpaw Suresh Raina will be leading the team.
He said, “Our home ground will be Rajkot”.
Forty-one-year-old Hodge is an IPL veteran. We have named our team Gujarat Lions to try and capture the spirit of Gujarat which has a rich cricketing history.
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While Raina is a seasoned IPL campaigner, Hodge is regarded one of the most experienced batsmen in Twenty20 cricket and is the second highest run-scorer in the format. He has played for three IPL franchises: Kolkata Knight Riders, Kochi Tuskers Kerala and Rajasthan Royals.
