Reports: Ajinkya Rahane to bid goodbye to Rajasthan Royals, expected to join Delhi Capitals

The Indian Premier League trade window for the upcoming IPL season will shut down today and the franchises are expected to bustle for acquiring the best deals possible. Two prominent transfers were executed on Wednesday involving two pacers. Left-arm fast bowler Trent Boult was snapped up by Mumbai Indians for the upcoming season.

The New Zealand speedster made his IPL debut in 2014 and played for the Capitals in the 2018 and 2019 season. Boult has scalped 38 wickets from 33 games in his IPL career. Mumbai Indians, who were in the hunt for a left-arm pacer to complement Jasprit Bumrah were triumphant to finally end their search.

Another notable trade was Ankit Rajpoot, who will represent Rajasthan Royals in the upcoming IPL after a successful trade by Kings XI Punjab. Rajpoot had joined Kings XI Punjab in 2018 and has 22 scalps to his name in 23 IPL matches. The right-arm pacer’s 2018 IPL season was impressive as delivered one of the best performances of his career by picking up 5 wickets while conceding 14 runs against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Rajpoot is the only uncapped player to have a five-wicket haul in the IPL.

Ajinkya Rahane expected to join Delhi Capitals

Meanwhile, one more noteworthy trade is expected to take place where Team India’s Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane is set to join Delhi Capitals, as per a report by the Hindustan Times. The right-hander, who was the former skipper of Rajasthan Royals, will bolster Delhi Capitals’ batting line-up along with the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, skipper Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant and Hanuma Vihari. Rahane has delivered consistent performances in his IPL career, gathering 3820 runs in 140 matches at an average of 32.93.

With Aijnkya Rahane’s inclusion in the Delhi Capitals’ batting line-up, the franchise is expected to let Hanuma Vihari go. Vihari could emerge as one of the two players to be traded to Rajasthan Royals. Delhi have also acquired the services of Ravichandran Ashwin from Kings XI Punjab while letting go of Sherfane Rutherford to Mumbai Indians. Delhi have certainly been successful to execute some impressive trades ahead of the IPL 2020.

The trading window is slated to end on November 14 and the franchises involved finalizing the trades. The list of released and retained players will be announced on November 15.

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