Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra said that the Lucknow Super Giants’ (LSG) fortunes in the upcoming season might be defined by Nicholas Pooran and Marcus Stoinis’ performances as well. However, LSG bought Pooran for a whopping sum of ₹16 crores at the mini-auction in Kochi on Friday, December 23. They also bought nine other players for ₹3.8 crores.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra said: “Nicholas Pooran is their biggest purchase. They broke the entire bank on Nicholas Pooran. Their fortunes will solely depend on how they use Nicholas Pooran and Marcus Stoinis. They haven’t been able to use Marcus Stoinis well thus far. We will have to see how Nicholas Pooran plays because he might just hold the key to everything.”

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He also feels that the limited supply of overseas middle-order batters at the auction helped Pooran attract huge bids, saying: “Nicholas Pooran is a perfect example of supply and demand. The last year was extremely ordinary but he was very expensive. But he has gone even more expensive this year, he has left his team’s captaincy as well. His stars are going down if you see his performances but if you see his price, you say wow.”

Nicholas Pooran, however, scored 306 runs which came at a decent average of 38.25 and a strike rate of 144.33 for the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) in IPL 2022.

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“Jaydev Unadkat is a good acquisition, they got him at base price. They have added more all-rounders in the form of Daniel Sams and Romario Shepherd. They have picked a leg-spinner in the form of Amit Mishra. Amit Mishra could be their designated impact player in bowling. If I see in the batting, Ayush Badoni could be their impact player because the rest of them are all-rounders, whether it is Quinton de Kock, KL Rahul, Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya, Marcus Stoinis or Nicholas Pooran,” Aakash Chopra concluded.