Dasun Shanaka, the star Sri Lankan all-rounder, has been signed by Gujarat to replace Kane Williamson, who will not participate in the Indian T20 League (ITL) 2023 due to a knee injury sustained during the season’s opening match against Chennai in Ahmedabad.
The T20I captain for Sri Lanka, Shanaka, is a batting all-rounder who has participated in 181 T20 matches, accumulating 3702 runs at a strike rate of 141.94 and claiming 59 wickets with an economy rate of 8.8. In the three Twenty20 Internationals Sri Lanka played in India in January of this year, he scored 124 runs at a strike rate of 187.87. He will be making his Indian T20 League debut this time.
Kane Williamson was injured in the 13th over of the ITL 2023 season opener
Williamson landed awkwardly while trying to take a catch at the deep square leg boundary during his first game for the Gujarat franchise. This happened in the 13th over of Chennai’s innings. He had jumped to save a ball that was being hit by Ruturaj Gaikwad’s bat for six. Williamson was on the ground clutching his right knee when he palmed the ball into the field of play, sparing two runs before it went onto the boundary boards.
He received treatment for a while but didn’t participate in the game afterwards. Since then, Williamson has travelled back to New Zealand for additional medical evaluation and care for his knee injuries. The Titans are the reigning champions after winning the trophy in 2022, their inaugural season. They won their opening match against Chennai to start their title defence.
Here’s the updated Gujarat squad: Wriddhiman Saha(w), Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Hardik Pandya(c), Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Shami, Joshua Little, Yash Dayal, Alzarri Joseph, Jayant Yadav, Mohit Sharma, Srikar Bharat, Abhinav Manohar, Pradeep Sangwan, Matthew Wade, Odean Smith, David Miller, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Shivam Mavi, Darshan Nalkande, Urvil Patel and Dasun Shanaka
Here’s how fans reacted to Dasun Shanaka’s major update:
Will find it difficult to break into the first team ?
— havOc (@tskiyer2) April 4, 2023
GT is already strong,orr kitna strong banna hai inhe?
— SIDHEART (@RiturajMaheshw1) April 4, 2023
Jesus Christ this team getting too OP lol
— Ruthwik Rao (@rao_ruthwik) April 4, 2023
Great replacement..infact Dasun shanaka is a much better option than kane in t20s..
— Broken Soul ? (@MeEngrr) April 4, 2023
Lowest point of his career
— Aariz Zain?? (@arizzain687) April 4, 2023
Other than the top 3, all of them are finishers ?????
— N Y C T O P H I L E ? (@pranavvishu) April 4, 2023
Finally Darren Shanaka is in the IPL pic.twitter.com/cU1IWeXPHn
— SR Cricket Fantasy (@CricketFantasyS) April 4, 2023
Better than Pooran
— S U Y A S H ?????? (@suyash_padwal) April 4, 2023
