Gujarat Titans likely to sign Priyank Panchal as a backup player for IPL 2022
In the latest development, Gujarat Titans have recruited the services of Priyank Panchal as a backup player for the next season. Gujarat Titans will start their campaign on March 28 as they take on Lucknow Super Giants in the fourth game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season.
The game will be staged at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The new franchise has already begun their preparations for the next season. They will be looking forward to starting their new season on a grand note. Hardik Pandya will lead the Ahmedabad-based franchise for the first time.
Gujarat Titans retained Hardik Pandya and Rashid Khan for Rs 15 crore each ahead of the IPL 2022 auction. Last but not least, they retained the services of Shubman Gill for Rs 8 crore. Besides that, The CVC Capital-owned franchise has strengthened their base by signing quality players.
Priyank Panchal likely to join Gujarat Titans
Overall, they have purchased 20 players including 13 Indians and seven overseas in the IPL 2022 auction. They have a great squad and should be looking to compete for the title. Earlier, the GT franchise suffered a big blow after England batsman Jason Roy opted out of the tournament as he cited bubble fatigue as the reason.
Nonetheless, they named Afghanistan wicketkeeper-batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz as the replacement of England international. As per a report by Sportskeeda, Priyank Panchal is likely to join Gujarat Titans as a backup player anytime soon. Panchal has experience of playing 50 games in T20s where he scored 1327 runs at a strike rate of 126.98 in domestic cricket.
The Gujarat skipper garnered 188 runs in five innings at a strike rate of 135.25 in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021-22 season. He aggregated 79 off 57 balls including 6 fours and 3 sixes against Madhya Pradesh to steer Gujarat’s total to 162/3 in the first innings. His innings helped Gujarat beat Madhya Pradesh by 50 runs.
It is worth mentioning here that the 31-year-old also captained India A team in the 3 unofficial Tests versus South Africa A in November last year. In fact, he was also named replacement for Rohit Sharma in India’s Test squad for the South Africa Test series, although he didn’t play a single Test match.
