Big BLOW To GT As Kane Williamson Ruled Out Of IPL 2023; Replacement Not Named Yet

Gujarat Titans (GT) received a huge blow on Sunday (April 2) when their overseas pick Kane Williamson was ruled out of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2023). Williamson had injured his right knee while fielding during the IPL 2023 opening game between GT and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on March 31 at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad.  GT team management wished speedy recovery to Williamson. "It is sad to lose Kane to injury so early in the tournament. We wish him a speedy recovery, with the hope of seeing him in action very soon," said GT director of cricket Vikram Solanki in a press release.

Also Read | IPL 2023: 'Steve Smith Can Join Gujarat Titans To Replace Kane Williamson,' Believes Sanjay Manjrekar

Titans have not named the replacement yet but said that an announcement on the same will be done in due course.

It will be inetesting to see who replaces Williamson in the squad. The NZ batter was bought by GT for Rs 2 crore at the December mini auction. Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar ad advised GT to replace Williamson with Australia's Steve Smith if the Black Caps star does not get fit in time.

We regret to announce, Kane Williamson has been ruled out of the TATA IPL 2023, after sustaining an injury in the season opener against Chennai Super Kings.

We wish our Titan a speedy recovery and hope for his early return. pic.twitter.com/SVLu73SNpl

— Gujarat Titans (@gujarat_titans) April 2, 2023

"I think that would be a brilliant call, and Steve Smith is the kind of player they want, somebody who can play all kinds of gears. Plus with the new rules which he finds very cool, I’d love to see Smiths captaincy, we saw that and we were raving about it in the India-Australia series. And Hardik Pandya, needs a bit of help, he confessed, ‘I have no idea what my tactics are, so I’m going to leave it to the others.’ So, that could be a great call actually," Manjrekar had said.

The other contender to replace Williamson could be Travis Head, another Australian batter who can bat with a decent strike rate. Head is a left-handed batter and can be a backup opener too for GT. However, Smith is the right man if GT are looking for a like-for-like replacement as both these batters are more of anchors than strikers of the cricket ball.