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England opener Jason Roy recently announced that he will be pulling out of the 2022 Indian Premier League citing ‘Bio Bubble Fatigue’. Roy confirmed the news as he made an Instagram post addressing the issue. But this decision puts the Gujarat Lions in a bit of complication as they don’t have another player who could fit in Roy’s role.
Reacting to this new, Former India batter and Cricket Expert Aakash Chopra also discussed Gujarat's quandary. He said, “Bio-bubble fatigue is REAL. Nobody should ever trivialise it. One could understand why Roy has pulled out of the IPL. That said…it puts GT in a soup. And IPL remembers who pulled out & when…and that affects future purchases of the same player. It’s not heartless but pragmatic,” on his YouTube channel.
With a purse of Rs 14.65 crore remaining, the Gujurat Titans could look at the following three options in order to replace Jason Roy for the upcoming IPL season.
Martin Guptill
Martin Guptill has been one of the greatest T20 batters in the history of Cricket. Until recently, the New Zealand opener was the highest run-scorer in international T20 history with a sum of 3299 runs from 108 innings with a strike rate of 136.71. In his last T20I series in India, he scored 152 runs in three games with an average of 50.67 and a strike rate of 163.44. He hasn’t performed well in the IPL but this could be his opportunity to make his mark on the best T20 league in the world.
Dawid Malan
The English batter Dawid Malan was ranked number one in the T20Is as per the ICC rankings last year. But he has fallen down in that list at the fifth spot after some below-par performances in recent games. Malan had a poor T20 World Cup as he scored only 116 runs with a high score of 41 in the semi-finals. He played in only one game in the last IPL where he scored 26 runs.
Josh Philippe
Wicket-keeper and batter Josh Philippe has looked like a very promising Australian player. He has had a slow start at the international level but has played incredibly well in the Big Bash. Playing for the Sydney Sixers in 63 matches, he has scored 1735 runs with a strike rate of 142.68 and a high score of 99*. He also played for Royal Challengers Bengaluru where he scored 78 runs from five games.