IPL 2022: Ahmedabad Franchise Names Hardik Pandya As Captain, Rashid Khan And Shubman Gill Are The Other Picks

Hardik Pandya has been named captain of the Ahmedabad franchise ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction. Rashid Khan and Shubman Gill are the two other draft picks of the team. Hardik, who was not retained by the Mumbai Indians earlier last year, had been one of the mainstays of the MI side since making his debut. This is a huge opportunity and responsibility for Hardik, who currently finds himself out of the Indian team after a below par performance in the ICC T20 World Cup last year.

Hardik and Rashid have been picked for Rs 15 crore each while Shubman has been signed for Rs 8 crore.

Stars in their bag already! #TeamAhmedabad has gone all guns blazing for #VIVOIPL 2022.

Which pick by them made you go ? Tell us pic.twitter.com/USDvtZKGnw

— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) January 21, 2022

It will be interesting to see if Hardik will return to bowling duties for his new franchise, something he hasn’t done since injuring his back.

Rashid Khan is another big name picked by the Ahmedabad franchise. The Afghan spinner has been the backbone of Sunrisers Hyderabad’s bowling department for several years now and he is definitely one of the biggest draws in franchise T20 leagues all over the world.

Shubman Gill is a talented Indian opener, who was given an opportunity by Kolkata Knight Riders and the former U-19 World Cup winner repaid the faith shown in him with some good performances.

Gill was overlooked by KKR during the retention as his performance last season wasn’t up to the mark and the team instead decided to retain Venkatesh Iyer, whose introduction in the second half of IPL 2021 propelled KKR to the final.

Here are the records of the three players in IPL over the years

Hardik Pandya

Matches: 92, Runs: 1476, Strike-rate: 153.91, Wickets: 42, Economy: 9.06

Rashid Khan

Matches: 76, Wickets: 93, Economy: 6.33

Promoted

Shubman Gill

Matches: 58, Runs: 1417, Strike-rate: 123