This year two new teams added to IPL teams least which are Gujarat Lions and Rising Pune Supergiants.
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The Dhoni-led Pune Supergiants showed their skills they handed defending champions Mumbai Indians a nine-wicket drubbing.
Despite the green surface, Suresh Raina threw the ball to Shadab Jakati in the second over, and Ajinkya Rahane went after him. “[There is an] Even covering of grass”. It is a pretty good wicket, so there is no real need to make any change (to the playing XI). Now its time to watch which team will win in their first match against each other.
Skipper Suresh Raina and team owner Keshav Bansal at the launch of the Gujarat Lions team jersey. The pitch had a lot of grass on it, and the seamers rubbed their hands in glee, however, as it turned out, it was the spinners who made the difference at the end of the night. Curator Dhiraj Parsana has left patches of green on the track that is expected to help the seamers early on.
While Pune Supergiants seemed on course for a big total, they were pulled back by some fantastic death bowling before Dhoni played his rescue act. Both Dhoni and Raina have led their sides to victory in their opening games of the tournament.
The expected playing eleven for GL will be from- MS Dhoni, Faf du Plessis, Steven Smith, Ajinkya Rahane, Mitchell Marsh, Ravichandran Ashwin, Murugan, Kevin Pietersen, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Ashoke Dinda, Scott Boland, Thisara Perera, Rajat Bhatia, Peter Handscomb, RP Singh, Deepak Chahar, Jaskaran Singh, Adam Zampa, Ishwar Pandey, Ankush Bains, Baba Aparajith, Ankit Sharma.
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Gujarat Lions have brought in Pravin Tambe, Shadab Jakati and Akshdeep Nath in place of Pradeep Sangwan, Sarabjeet Ladda and Ishan Kishan.
