Rajkot IPL team named Gujarat Lions; Suresh Raina to lead

Suresh Raina, former Chennai Super Kings player, will lead the Gujarat Lions – the Rajkot Franchise of the Indian Premier League (IPL) as announced at an event held in New Delhi on Tuesday (February 2). The side will be coached by Australia’s Brad Hodge.

The franchise was acquired by Intex Technologies for a period of two years in the IPL franchise auction held in 2015, in which they bid minus 10 crore during the reverse bidding process.

In the draft process that followed for Rajkot and Rising Pune Supergiants, the second franchise bought during last year’s auction, Gujarat Lions had bought Ravindra Jadeja, Brendon McCullum, James Faulkner and Dwayne Bravo, apart from Raina.

The ninth edition of the IPL is set to start on April 8 and will go on till May 24 while the auction will take place on February 6.