IPL 2017: Gujarat Lions bagged Irfan Pathan to shield the crater of injured Bravo.

Gujarat Lions while sensing dearth in their team formation chiefly after the proclamation of Bravo’s languishment towards rebounding the squad, roped in the unsold jock of the 10th season of IPL, Irfan Pathan. This year at the auction despite having the base price of 50 lakh in bag, this all-rounder was discarded by all the 8 franchises.

On Sunday night, the Gujarat franchise divulged the plight of Dwayne Bravo regarding his inability to return from hamstring injury for this entire IPL season. Hence they buttressed the chasm of an all-rounder by catering Pathan to their side. “While recovery is going well and I have made vast improvement and have participated in team trainings with the Lions, my body is not ready to perform at its fullest potential,” the West Indian champ expounded while undergoing rehabilitation in Rajkot.

Taking a small dig towards past, Irfan had seen being apart of five IPL franchises- Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Daredevils, Kings XI Punjab, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rising Pune Supergiant. Talking about his contribution for each franchises, his stats stand something like this; 80 wickets from 102 IPL games, along with 1137 runs at a strike-rate of 120.57. However he had a very bad season last year with Rising Pune Supergiant, scoring 11 runs in three innings and going wicket less in the eight overs he bowled.

Keeping the facts in mind that the Baroda all rounder nowadays is not on his shaped forte, he has been the subject matter of heightened conjecture regarding his upcoming performance. He has been taking toll on his performance since the phase of his hounding took places.

Apart from all, Pathan did have a good expedition with ball during Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in which he bagged five wickets in four games at an average of 17.60 and an economy rate of 6.28. However his batting is still on a interrogative phase. After finishing off in the play offs last year, the Lions are currently in seventh place with only two successive wins from their seven games. Hopefully Pathan’s advent turns out to be launching their triumphant outing in the 10th season of IPL.