What the franchises would look for in the IPL 2017 Auction

8. Gujarat Lions

On its debut season, the franchise had a dream run in the league stage last year as they secured the pole position on the points table. Though they failed to make it to the final, it was a commendable effort from them to finish third in the tournament. Here is how the squad pans out on paper with the strong players:

Openers: Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith, Aaron Finch, Ishan Kishan

Middle Order Batsmen: Suresh Raina (c), Dinesh Karthik (wk)

All-rounders: Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, James Faulkner

Spinners: Shivil Kaushik, Shadab Jakati

Fast bowlers: Praveen Kumar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Andrew Tye, Pradeep Sangwan

What’s required

They are a very batting heavy side with the presence of power hitters at the top and the all-rounder in the lower order. Their death bowling is nicely served by Bravo and Faulkner. Their side at present looks quite balanced, the reason why they did so well last year.

Where they can improve is with their spinners. They have Jadeja as the spinner and they have dropped Pravin Tambe from the squad. An off-spinner or a leg-spinner would be good to compliment Jadeja’s left-arm spin. They have INR 14.35 crores in the bag and one big investment is affordable.

Their fast bowling can have one more foreign player. They might not go for the costly bowlers but can certainly buy the one who does not attract big bucks in the auction. Karthik would be the prominent keeper and has McCullum in the side who can take up the gloves if required.