"Self care"- Hardik Pandya posts a picture of himself; new teammate Rashid Khan responds
Indian all-rounder and newly-appointed skipper of the Ahmedabad franchise Hardik Pandya and his new teammate Rashid Khan engaged in a heartwarming interaction on Instagram after the former posted a picture of himself on his official account.
Pandya took to his account to post a picture which he captioned:
"Self care."
Rashid proceeded to comment on the post. He wrote: "Skipper" with a set of emoticons.
Khan and Pandya will be sharing a dressing room for the first time in the upcoming 14th season of the IPL.
Ahead of the mega-auction, the two new franchises- Lucknow and Ahmedabad- were given the choice of picking three players.
They picked Hardik as their skipper for a whopping sum of Rs 15 crore followed by Rashid (Rs 15 crore) and opener Shubman Gill, who has been roped in for Rs 8 crore.
Can Hardik Pandya, Rashid Khan and Shubman Gill form a winning combination at the Ahmedabad franchise?
Hardik, who rose to superstardom during his stint with the Mumbai Indians, was not retained by the five-time champions ahead of the mega auction.
The Baroda cricketer played a crucial role in MI becoming a title-winning juggernaut in the last 5 years but had an underwhelming season last year where he did not bowl, besides struggling with the bat.
He was also dropped from the national white ball side following a disastrous T20 WC campaign and the right-hander will be looking to get back into the national team reckoning by putting in consistent performances in the upcoming season.
This season will be crucial for Hardik as good performances will go a long way in helping him regain his place in the national white-ball set-up.
As for Rashid, it came as a huge surprise when SunRisers Hyderabad didn't retain him. The former champions picked Kane Willamson as the first player to be retained.
Gill, meanwhile, wasn't retained by the Kolkata Knight Riders. The trio will now look to form a leadership group and create an environment where players coming into the system thrive.
The Ahmedabad franchise has Rs 52 crore remaining in their purse, and it will be interesting to see which players they go for in the mega auction.
The forthcoming auction will take place in Bengaluru on February 12 and 13.