By IANS
Chennai : The Chennai Super Kings signed up 24-year old Punjab all-rounder Manpreet Gony Friday to replace a injured Sudeep Tyagi for the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) starting April 18.
Chief selector of the Super Kings team V.B. Chandrasekar said: “Gony was very much in the loop. Now that Tyagi is injured, we have decided to sign up Gony as a replacement as allowed by the IPL Board.”
Chandrasekar added that Gony was highly recommended by Bhupinder Singh, one of the national selectors and has performed well in the Deodhar and Ranji Trophy matches.
“Gony is six feet, four inches tall. He bowls with reasonable pace and can hit the ball hard. He is the right kind of player for our team and has done fairly well in the Deodhar and Ranji games,” Chandrasekar added.
Gony has played five first-class games and has taken 13 wickets with an economy rate of 3.51. He has scored 122 runs in seven innings for an average of 20.33.
The Super Kings, owned by India Cements, will be led by India’s one-day captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Kepler Wessels is the coach and has physical trainer Gregory King and physio Tommy Simsek as his support staff.
The IPL, to be contested among eight teams, will start April 18 and will feature 59 matches over 44 days, including two semi-finals and the final at Mumbai June 1. All matches will be played under floodlights.
The Chennai team boasts of seven foreign players in Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey (both Australia), Stephen Fleming and Jacob Oram (both New Zealand), Makhaya Ntini and Albie Morkel (both South Africa) and Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka).