Rajkot franchise named as Gujarat Lions

The Rajkot team, one of the two new franchises in the Indian Premier League has been named as Gujarat Lions. The two new franchises namely Rajkot and Pune were announced for the ninth edition of the tournament and will replace Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals after Supreme Court imposed a two-year ban on them.

The name of the Rajkot franchise was announced by 23-year-old Intex owner Keshav Bansal on Tuesday at an event in Delhi. Rajkot’s bid was won by the Intex Technologies Ltd. while the bid for the Pune franchise was bagged by New Rising.

Ravindra Jadeja, James Faulkner, Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Bravo were the other four players selected by Rajkot in the first ever IPL draft held in November. Barring Faulkner, all of Rajkot’s players were contracted with CSK up until last year.

Brad Hodge, former Australian cricketer and a T20 specialist, was announced as the coach of the team.

The franchise was in talks with former South African opener Gary Kirsten, who was axed by Delhi Daredevils as coach after two seasons. Rajkot finally opted for Hodge, one of the most experienced Twenty20 players, giving him his first proper full-time coaching role.

Hodge, who is currently playing in the Masters Champions League, had originally put his name in the IPL auction’s long list. He had listed his base price as INR 5,000,000 but when the final short list was published by the IPL last weekend, Hodge had withdrawn his name.

Hodge also previously played for three IPL franchises – Kolkata Knight Riders, Kochi Tuskers Kerala and Rajasthan Royals.