Description Available in: The Gujarat Lions (often abbreviated as GL) are a temporary franchise cricket team based in the city of Rajkot, Gujarat that will play in the Indian Premier League in 2016 and 2017 seasons. The team will serve as one of the replacements for Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, who were both suspended for two seasons due to alleged illegal betting by their respective owners. The franchise is owned by Intex Technologies.
During the 2016 IPL players draft, Rajkot franchise picked Indian cricketers Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja, along with Brendon McCullum, James Faulkner and Dwayne Bravo. In an event held in New Delhi, the Rajkot-based team was named as Gujarat Lions and Suresh Raina was announced as their captain.
The team would play five of their home matches at Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium Rajkot and two of their home matches at Green Park Stadium Kanpur in the Vivo IPL 2016.