GT Opt For Chinaman Noor Ahmad as Impact Player vs RR
AFG's Noor Ahmad comes in as Impact Player vs RR (Twitter)
Unlike the earlier fixtures, Gujarat Titans have opted for Afghanistan's Chinaman spinner Noor Ahmad as their Impact Player for the clash against Rajasthan Royals. Interestingly, the Titans brought in Ahmad in the 13th over of the second innings, with RR reeling at 66/4 in a chase of 178 runs.
Ahmad has substituted the opening batter Shubman Gill, who got injured earlier in the innings after gobbling a take and putting one down.
Usually, Gujarat bring in the left-arm seamer Joshua Little or Vijay Shankar as their Impact Players in IPL 2023. However, if batting second, the all-rounder Shankar substitutes a GT player, and if bowling later, then they opt for the Irishman Little.
Ahmad, 18, is just two-game old at the international stage, playing just one ODI and as many T20I matches. However, the Afghanistan tweaker has ample experience of playing T20 cricket, representing in various leagues such as BBL, PSL, and ILT20.
The Chinaman has played 50 T20 matches across the globe to scalp a total of 46 wickets at an ER of 7.20, with his strike rate being 23.9.
After putting into bat, Gujarat put up a competitive total of 177 runs on the board, courtesy of David Miller's 46, Gill's 45 and timely contributions from Abhinav Manohar and skipper Pandya.
At mid-innings, it seemed Rajasthan Royals had restricted the home team to a below-par score, but Mohammed Shami and Pandya broke the visitor's back with the new ball, after which Rashid Khan trapped two crucial wickets.
The teenager has already snapped his maiden IPL wicket in form of RR's skipper Sanju Samson, who lost his breath at 60 after playing 32 deliveries.
At the time of writing, the Royals are at 134 after losing five wickets, but they are still in the chase, needing 44 runs off the last four overs.
 "Arjun Bhalla")
