Gujarat Titans all-rounder Vijay Shankar returned to the team for their win against Rajasthan Royals on Thursday, but was not able to make an impact as he was dismissed for just 2 off 7 deliveries. He found himself trending on Twitter, but for all the wrong reasons, as fans took to the microblogging site to troll him. While some asked how he was picked up in the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction but not a veteran like Suresh Raina, others suggested that he should only be warming the benches in the cash-rich league.
"I used to think Vijay Shankar is not a player worthy of Indian team but I was wrong cause to be honest he should not even warm benches in franchise cricket," one user wrote.
"Vijay Shankar was picked by a franchise but not Raina," another user added.
"Vijay Shankar's only contribution to cricket is helping make a legend out of Dinesh Karthik in the Nidahas Trophy final," one user chipped in.
"Vijay Shankar's wicket getting celebrated is his biggest achievement," one user commented.
Shankar played GT's first match, but an injury ruled him out and he was replaced by youngster B Sai Sudharshan. He replaced Sudharshan in the match against the Royals.
Despite Shankar failing to fire, Gujarat Titans scored 192/4, with skipper Hardik Pandya smashing an unbeaten 87 off 52 deliveries.
Abhinav Manohar carried on his good form, scoring 43 off 28, while David Miller provided them with a strong finish with his 31* off 14.
Lockie Ferguson then blew the Royals away with his pace as he finished with three wickets for just 23 runs.
The most crucial of those was that of Jos Buttler, who was on a rampage and had hit a 23-ball fifty.
Debutant Yash Dayal also picked three as Gujarat Titans registered a 37-run win to go top of the IPL 2022 points table.