Indian leg-spinner and a well-known face in IPL, Shreyas Gopal was seen bowling at the trials for Royal Challengers Bangalore ahead of the IPL 2024 auction. Shreyas wasn’t part of any team in the last season of the cash-rich league, however, he is eager to make a comeback.
Gopal made his debut in IPL for Mumbai Indians back in 2014. However, he hasn’t gotten enough opportunities to prove his mettle, to say the least, and, thus, had to switch from one franchise to another, over the years.
In 2018, he was signed up by Rajasthan Royals and his best season came in 2019, when he picked as many as 19 wickets. He was the leading wicket-taker for RR that season and also picked a hat-trick against RCB, which included wickets of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, and Marcus Stoinis.
However, modest outings in 2020 and 2021 meant he was released from the squad. In 2020, he could only manage to pick 10 wickets in 14 games, which was followed by another forgettable season, as he couldn’t pick a single wicket in three matches.
The Indian leggie played for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2022 edition but got only one game to play.
However, His recent performances in the domestic circuit would have tempted RCB to look at him. He picked 12 wickets in just 7 matches for Kerala in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2023. Several other domestic players were present at the trials, namely Swastik Chikara, Sushant Mishra, Money Grewal, Avinash Singh and Sameer Rizvi.
Shreyas Gopal Speaks Ahead of IPL 2024 Auction
Shreyas Gopal, recently, gave an interview to Sportstar, where he expressed his desire to play another season in the Indian Premier League.
“I know the IPL is coming up, and I need to be delivering with some good performances. The good part is that I have been getting some wickets… I am feeling confident about the way the ball is coming out of my hand. I will be lying if I say that I am not thinking about the auction. I do want to get into a team and contribute for whichever team I represent,” Shreyas told Sportstar while maintaining that his priority was to help Kerala win the 50-over title.
“With RR, those four years were great. I was their lead spinner for a couple of years. I got a lot of wickets and there was a phase where I wasn’t getting as many wickets. I would say I didn’t bowl very well. The way I am bowling now is giving me glimpses and giving me more of that feel of 2019-2020, where I was getting a lot of wickets. That gives me a smile when I go to bed,” he added.
The upcoming IPL 2024 auction is slated to take place on the 19th at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai. And going into the auction, all teams would be all prepped about which player to acquire ahead of IPL 2024.
Also Read: IPL 2024 Auction Players List Revealed, Check Out
