Irfan Pathan spotted practicing at KIOC in Lions jersey, likely to play against RCB

Veteran Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan is all set to make his entry in the 2017 edition of the IPL. Irfan, who had initially gone unsold in the IPL auctions earlier this year, was drafted in as a replacement of Dwayne Bravo in the Gujarat Lions setup. The news broke out in the wee hours of Monday (April 24) and good wishes came in flooding for the Baroda all-rounder.

The Gujarat Lions will take on the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday (April 27). Interestingly, Irfan Pathan is likely to play in the fixture against the batting heavy RCB unit. Irfan was recently spotted practicing at the Karnataka Institute of Cricket (KIOC) in Bengaluru. He arrived at the venue in the practice jersey of Gujarat Lions.

The star all-rounder was accompanied by the assistant coach of Gujarat Lions, Sitanshu Kotak. During his 2-hour long stay at the academy, Irfan had a brief spell of bowling practice. He ran in hard and looked in fine form rightaway with the white ball. The swing that he is renowned for was very much on display for the heavy crowd that had gathered at the academy to watch Irfan Pathan in action.

Later, Pathan had a batting session as well. Kotak was seen working on Pathan’s batting in the nets and had some valuable inputs to add for the same. After a brief batting session which included the throw downs from Kotak, Pathan headed to the bowling machine. He faced the fast deliveries in the bowling machine and had a decent time with the bat there as well.

The Indian all-rounder was greeted by the big swarm of kids and aspiring cricketers of KIOC along with the coaches at the academy. Pathan acknowledged the love from the crowd and signed autographs for the fans.

Well, going by the hard inches Irfan Pathan is taking in the lead up to the encounter against Royal Challengers Bangalore, expect the crowd favorite all-rounder to take the field soon. The Lions have struggled with their bowling this season and someone like Pathan could fit the bill in an ideal way for the franchise.

@IrfanPathan practising at the KIOC ground in Bangalore
Likely to feature in the @TheGujaratLions for the game against RCB on Thursday #ipl pic.twitter.com/BWTKO3E3J9

— Ankit Mishra (@editedidea) April 25, 2017