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‘Soye bhagya jaag gaye Shanaka ke’ - Fans react as Dasun Shanaka replaces injured Kane Williamson in Gujarat for ITL 2023

Here is how fans have reacted to Dasun Shanaka replacing the injured the Kiwi in Gujarat for the whole ITL 2023

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Dasun Shanaka and Hardik Pandya

Dasun Shanaka and Hardik Pandya (Image Source: Twitter)

Gujarat have been enjoying a solid start to the Indian T20 League 2023 as they have won two out of two games so far. Hardik Pandya and his men have defeated Chennai and Delhi so far in the tournament. But, in the season opener, they dealt a major blow when Kane Williamson got injured while fielding.

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As a result, he failed to come out to bat during the chase and they substituted him with Sai Sudharsan. Later, it got confirmed that Williamson had been ruled out for the whole season. So, fans were thinking of some players to replace him in the squad. On 4 April, the franchise confirmed that Sri Lanka all-rounder Dasun Shanaka had replaced the Kiwi in the squad.

“I’m sure there will be something for me in India in the future.” - Dasun Shanaka

Dasun Shanaka had a base price of INR 50 Lakh in the auction. But, it was quite surprising to see no franchises showed any interest in the player.  However, now, he is all set to the Gujarat camp for the ongoing season of ITL. Speaking of the injury to Williamson, Gujarat’s director of cricket, Vikram Solanki said: "It is sad to lose Kane to injury so early in the tournament. We wish him a speedy recovery, with the hope of seeing him in action very soon". Recently, Shanaka was in action in India when Sri Lanka came to play a three-match T20I series.

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Sri Lanka lost the series 2-1 but Shanaka came up with a fantastic performance in the second T20I. In that match, he won the Player of the Match award for scoring 56* runs off 22 balls while taking two wickets for four runs in just one over. Seeing that performance, while speaking on Star Sports, the Lucknow franchise’s global mentor Gautam Gambhir said: “I won’t have money, he would be that expensive, the way he has batted. That is what the auction is all about. Imagine if this series had happened just before the auction, some of the franchises would probably not have had the money to buy him”.      

Meanwhile, in an exclusive chat with Hindustan Times, Dasun Shanaka shared his views on being unsold in the ITL auction. He said: “When it comes to India, the pitches are batting friendly. So, I enjoy those conditions very much. It’s (aggressive batting) in my game, my instinctive reactions come to play there. I don’t mind that I didn’t get picked in the Indian T20 League. I’m sure there will be something for me in India in the future. So I’m looking forward for that opportunity to play in the Indian T20 League”. 

Here is how fans have reacted to the news of Shanaka replacing Williamson in Gujarat:

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