When we were putting together a list of all the complete IPL 2022 squads after the auction was done, we were inclined to think that Gujarat Titans had the weakest squad going into this new tournament which is scheduled to begin towards the end of March 2022. And now to make things worse, one of their star signings at the IPL 2022 Auction has pulled out of the tournament.
We’re talking about England opening batsman Jason Roy who wrote a note on his social media accounts saying that he’ll be unable to play the IPL 2022 season for Gujarat Titans, because of the toll that the Covid-19 situation has taken on him over the last 2-3 years. It’s a fair reason and he apologised to his and the Titans’ fans, but it’s really left them with a problem to solve now.
Who can replace Jason Roy in IPL 2022?
Now the good part about the IPL is that you can always draft in replacement players, from the list of those who went unsold at the 2022 IPL Auction. And we at Read Scoops immediately started thinking of options of all those players who could be the ideal replacement for Jason Roy, who was actually in good form, scoring a maiden century in PSL 2022 in Pakistan as well.
And Twitter was immediately buzzing with Suresh Raina as the replacement candidate, especially since he’s played for Gujarat in the past, having led the Gujarat Lions for a couple of seasons. However, let’s assure you that’s fake news and Raina is the not signed (as yet, while we typed this article). And it’s not logical, as he’s not a like-for-like replacement.
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For starters, he isn’t a natural opener and secondly, the Titans will be looking at filling that overseas slot that Roy occupied. One immediate name that comes to mind for us is Australian captain Aaron Finch who has played for a few franchises in the IPL in the past but went unsold in the IPL 2022. He hasn’t been in the best of form so we don’t think he’s ideal, but he is a good opening option in T20 cricket, always!
Another option they could consider is Roy’s countryman, Dawid Malan. For a long time, this left-handed batsman was on top of the ICC T20I Batsman rankings and has represented the Punjab Kings in the IPL in the past. He in fact has even opened the batting on a few occasions for various teams and is likely to be called up to the Titans squad for IPL 2022.
Lastly, we could suggest an option in Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib al Hasan who is often considered the greatest all-rounder to have played the game. The reason we suggest Shakib is because he’s played the most cricket in the IPL as compared to Finch and Malan and he gives you the added flexibility of a bowling option which the others don’t.
For more updates on the 2022 Indian Premier League and for other cricket news from around the world, stay tuned to ReadScoops.com…
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