In the opening match of the 2023 edition of Indian Premier League between Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings, Rajvardhan Hangargekar made his debut for the tournament. The 20-year-old bowling all-rounder from Tuljapur, Maharashtra has made it to MS Dhoni's CSK squad.
Rajvardhan was part of the U19 Cricket World Cup that the Indian tea, won. He was bagged by CSK for Rs 1.5 crore. It will be interesting to see how Dhoni utilizes his services as the aggressive fast bowler can also player a role of power-hitting finisher.
In the 8 T20 matches that Rajvardhan played, he scalped 5 wickets with a BBI of 2/28 and at an economy rate of 5.54. When it comes to List A games, he has taken 25 wickets in 13 matches with BBI 5/53 and in the 4 FC games that he played, he picked 13 wickets.
Rajvardhan played his previous game for Maharashtra in a Ranji Trophy match against Hyderabad at Pune in January 2023. In the first innings of the match, the star bowler bowled 13 overs and conceded just 24 runs at an economy of 1.84. He scored just 3 runs before getting dismissed. On the other hand, in Hyderabad's second innings Rajvardhan scalped 3 wickets in the 16 overs bowled at an economy of 4.12. He didn't bat in Maharashtra's second innings.
Earlier in the match which is being played at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, Gujarat won toss and opted to bowl.
Chennai Super Kings XI: Devon Conway, ruturaj Gaikwad, Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Ambati Rayudu. Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Rajvardhan Hangargekar
Substitutes for CSK - Tushar Deshpande, Subhranshu Senapati, Shaik Rasheed, Ajinkya Rahane, Nishant Sindh
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