IPL 2022: Rahmanullah Gurbaz to Play For Gujarat Titans

Only recently we heard the bad news of England opener Jason Roy pulling out of the IPL 2022 season due to bubble fatigue and other personal reasons. And an already weak squad in Gujarat Titans suddenly started looking even weaker without this in-form player at the top of the order. However, they’ve managed to sign a more-than-capable replacement.

We’re talking about the young and raw talent of Afghanistan’s Rahmanullah Gurbaz. He’s nowhere as close to experienced as the likes of Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan who have been playing in the IPL for many years now, but he’s got raw talent and if trained well, this could be a massive addition to the squad, and a massive upgrade to his career as well.

We spoke about the options of Aaron Finch, Ben McDermott, Dawid Malan and others as likely replacements for Roy but instead, the Titans management took an unlikely route of signing a 20-year old kid from Afghanistan. But if you go to look into it, it’s not that surprising a decision because they seem to like Afghani cricketers, becoming the third from the nation in this team after Rashid and Noor Ahmad!

Gurbaz went unsold earlier this year in the IPL 2022 Auction but e’ll be a happy man anyway as a month later, he’s been called up to make is IPL debut. He was picked up by the Titans at his listed base prize of INR 50 Lakh which translates to roughly around $66,000. However, Australian wicketkeeper-batsman Matthew Wade is in the squad which means Gurbaz is not expected to be a first-choice eleven player.

Considering McDermott had a career-defining season at BBL 2021/22, we’d expect him to be the replacement signing but instead, the youngster Gurbaz has been picked. And in fact, Gurbaz hasn’t even been super consistent of late. In five international games against Bangladesh recently, he had as many as four single-digit scores, but he showed his talent in one special knock of 106*.

Even when you look at experience, one may say Gurbaz is not up to the task of playing world class players in the IPL. He’s played only 9 ODIs for his country till date but remember, he has a fantasy conversion rate as those 9 ODIs have seen him scoring 3 centuries so far. And his records on debut in any format or tournament are fabulous too!

Gurbaz struck a 24-ball 43 on his T20I debut for Afghanistan, a run-a-ball 127 on his ODI debut, a 19-ball 50 on his debut at the Bangladesh Premier League and a 22-ball 53 on his first appearance at the Lanka Premier League as well. As of now, he’s been offered a single year contract for IPL 2022 and post that, Titans will consider whether they should renew the contract or not.