The former Chennai Super Kings teammates will clash each other in the IPL game in Rajkot on Thursday.
Close friends and CSK teammates Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina will now be devising strategies as rival captains.
The short flight from Mumbai to Rajkot on Tuesday evening reflected the
merry mood of the passengers, majority of them Gujaratis. They were all
thrilled to be in the boeing aircraft in which the VIP passengers were
the Gujarat Lions team that had flown from Chandigarh to Mumbai after
trouncing Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in its debut IPL match at Mohali and
taken the connecting flight to Saurashtra’s cricketing capital.
At least a couple of passengers went to the extent of patting man of the
match against KXIP, Aaron Finch on his back and saying "well done". The
Lions’ first big victory had warmed the cockles of man a Gujarati
heart. By now most of the overseas players and non-local players would
have been familiar with State’s favourite two-word greeting "Khem Cho",
having spenta few days here during a short camp. The Lions’ bowling
coach Heath Streak said "Game Mari Che" so eloquently at the press
conference.
For the first time in nine years, the Gujarati’s believe they can
connect passionately to their own team with the first name after their
State and with the lion specie of the Gir Forest National Park as the
suffix. The Jaipur franchise’s Rajasthan Royals had made Ahmedabad’s
Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium its home ground for a dozen matches. But
this is the real `aapdo team’ the locals feel they can let out a full
throated scream for at the Khanderi-venue here along side the
Rajkot-Jamnagar highway when Suresh Raina’s Lions engage in a tussle
with Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s Rising Pune Supergiants.
The Lions’ captain Raina did his best to endear himself to the Gujarati
milieu. "It’s a special occasion for everyone. Gujarat never had an IPL
team in the first eight years. We are looking forward to play for
Gujarat. (Ravindra) Jadeja must be excited to play in front of a lot of
crowd. He’s also getting married soon (April 17)," said Raina after a
long stint at the net session here on Wednesday.
The local association feels that the 28,000 capacity stadium may be full
before the first ball is bowled, and that the likes of Finch, Dwayne,
Dinesh Karthik and Raina did enough at Mohali to promote their team and
win admirers here. Raina did not dwell too much upon the composition of
the team, but said: "For a 40 over-match you need to do proper practice
in batting, bowling and fielding. There is not much to speculate in such
a short game. We will field the best XI depending on the pitch."
While the Lions trained under the lights for the first big home match,
the Supergiants, which arrived here in the afternoon, decided against
net practice. But leg spinner Murugan Ashwin, who bowled four overs
against Mumbai Indians and dismissed Shreyas Gopal in the inaugural
match, spent some opted to give himself some practice bowling at the
stumps. It’s the second match for the Supergiants which scored a
crushing win against the defending champion Mumbai Indians at the
Wankhede and it must be hoping to outwit the home team in their own den.
Dhoni and Raina have spoken a lot about playing in the CSK yellows and
how they miss it, but the two, as a true professionals, have also vowed
to put their best foot forward for their new teams and this attitude and
approach should make the clash between the Lions and Supergiants a
pulsating one.
Teams (From)
Rising Pune Supergiants: MS Dhoni (C), Ajinkya Rahane, Kevin
Pietersen, Faf du Plessis, Steve Smith, Mitchell Marsh, Jaskaran Singh,
Ravichandran Ashwin, Ankit Sharma, Albie Morkel, Irfan Pathan, Ishant
Sharma, Ishwar Pandey, Thisara Perera, Saurabh Tiwary, R P Singh, Rajat
Bhatia, Ankush Bains, Baba Aparajith, Murugan Ashwin, Ashok Dinda,
Deepak Chahar, Scott Boland, Peter Handscomb, Adam Zampa.
Gujarat Lions: Suresh Raina (Capt.), Dwayne Bravo, James
Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith, Dale Steyn,
Pravin Tambe, Ishan Kishan, Ravindra Jadeja, Shadab Jakati, Dinesh
Karthik, Shivil Kaushik, Dhawal Kulkarni, Praveen Kumar, Pradeep
Sangwan, Jaydev Shah, Umang Sharma, Andrew Tye, Sarabjit Ladda, Akshdeep
Nath, Amit Mishra, Paras Dogra, Eklavya Dwivedi.
Match Starts at 8 p.m.
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