Very excited to join Chennai Super Kings: Sam Billings

England’s swashbuckling batsman Sam Billings made a name for himself in the limited overs circuit over the years and had earned a place in Chennai Super Kings side for the upcoming IPL. The MS Dhoni-led franchise has bought the 26-year-old for $156,000, and he will have the company of his English teammate Mark Wood.

Billings was earlier appointed as the captain of the Kent cricket club. He will have to skip five good rounds of the Championship matches at the initial stage of the season, which might not help his English county side. Apart from him and Wood, Moeen Ali, Jos Buttler, Chris Jordan, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes found buyers. While skipper Joe Root, Eoin Morgan and some of the big names went unsold.

Billings excited to play in the den

Billings took to Twitter and expressed his excitement on joining the yellow brigade. At the same time, he thanked his former team Delhi Daredevils for providing him with an opportunity in the previous editions. The Super Kings retained Dhoni, Suresh Raina, and Ravindra Jadeja to make up core group while buying all-rounder Dwyane Bravo with the ‘Right to match’ card option.

Even though the Lions failed to get their ace spinner Ravichandran Ashwin back to the den, the management roped in veteran tweaker Harbhajan Singh to fill up the void. Imran Tahir and Faf du Plessis will join the squad along with some talented Indian domestic stars. Let’s take a look at the tweet posted by Billings after he got picked by the Super Kings.

Very excited to be joining such a great franchise @<!---->C<!---->h<!---->e<!---->n<!---->n<!---->a<!---->i<!---->I<!---->P<!---->L ! The den ??

Thank you also to @<!---->D<!---->e<!---->l<!---->h<!---->i<!---->D<!---->a<!---->r<!---->e<!---->d<!---->e<!---->v<!---->i<!---->l<!---->s & all their fans for the last 2 Years, incredible experience & memories made.

Here’s to a great 2018 @<!---->I<!---->P<!---->L ?? h<!---->t<!---->t<!---->p<!---->s<!---->:<!---->/<!---->/<!---->t<!---->.<!---->c<!---->o<!---->/<!---->E<!---->5<!---->b<!---->G<!---->y<!---->1<!---->l<!---->2<!---->x<!---->z

— Sam Billings (@sambillings) J<!---->a<!---->n<!---->u<!---->a<!---->r<!---->y<!----> <!---->2<!---->8<!---->,<!----> <!---->2<!---->0<!---->1<!---->8

Chennai Super Kings Squad:

MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Faf du Plessis, Harbhajan Singh, Dwayne Bravo, Shane Watson, Kedar Jadhav, Ambati Rayudu, Imran Tahir, Karn Sharma, Shardul Thakur, N Jagadeesan, Santner, Deepak Chahar, KM Asif, Kanishk Seth, Ngidi, Dhruv Shorey, M Vijay, Billings, Mark Wood, Kshitiz Sharma, Monu Kumar, Chaitanya Bishnoi.