Lucknow IPL team are all geared up for their maiden season in Indian Premier League. IPL Mega Auction is going to hit the floors in Mid February till then lots of shuffles and retention are going on to consolidate respective teams making them best fit.
Lucknow IPL team has got newly appointed Mentor in the face of Gautam Gambhir. He unfolded some great facts and about picks by his team. He said Appointing KL Rahul as Captain for the Lucknow IPL team was a no-brainer for team management.
The Lucknow franchise, owned by RPSG Group, on Friday, announced KL Rahul as their captain, signing the India star for Rs 17 crore. Rahul, who was leading Punjab Kings for the last 2 seasons, decided to move away from the former finalists who did not retain him before the IPL 2022 auction.
Rahul has been a prolific run-getter in the IPL, scoring 3273 runs in 94 matches at a staggering average of over 47. Rahul has scored more than 550 runs in each of the last 4 IPL seasons even as his captaincy is being looked at as a work in progress.
“No brainer when it comes to KL Rahul, not just as a batter but as a leader as well. Obviously, it’s a work in progress, but he gives you three things — he opens the batting, he can keep wickets and he is a phenomenal white-ball batter, his consistency and his run-scoring has been phenomenal when he has played for Punjab and other franchises and what better than having someone who gives you 3 things,” Gambhir told.
Meanwhile, Lucknow paid Rs 9.2 crore to get Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis and Rs 4 crore for India’s uncapped leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi. Incidentally, all 3 players were part of the Punjab franchise at some point in the past.
Explaining the decision to pick Stoinis as one of the pre-auction selections, Gambhir said uncertainty over the availability of Ben Stokes forced them to go for the Australian all-rounder.
“Marcus Stoinis is a beautiful finisher. We were not 100 percent sure whether Ben Stokes was going to be in the auction or not, so there were not too many quality all-rounders. Plus Stoinis can bat in the middle order and can finish off the game as well,” Gambhir said.
Lucknow will head into the IPL 2022 mega auction, scheduled for February 13 and 14 with a purse of Rs 58 crore.
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