Former India opener turned famous commentator Aakash Chopra believes that Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) were not only precise in their spending but also did wonders at the IPL 2022 Auction. The Sanjiv Goenka-owned franchise had selected three players in the draft and named KL Rahul as their captain before the mega auction.
While picking 18 more players at the mega auction, they beautifully utilised their entire budget of Rs 90 crore. While talking about the auction, in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra rated Lucknow Super Giants behind only Chennai Super Kings in the list.
He reasoned: “I have given the Lucknow Super Giants the second-most numbers. I have given them 9/10. First, they spent all the money they had; even one rupee was not left. They are phenomenal; how can someone do it with so much precision. They bought 21 players, and there are some outstanding buys.”
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The cricketer-turned-commentator continued: “They had Rahul, Stoinis and Bishnoi. If you have Stoinis, you think if you can get Jason Holder. Generally, teams think if they can get Stoinis or Mitchell Marsh or Jason Holder. You don’t get all three together, they have got two already.”
Aakash Chopra also feels that Quinton de Kock is another exceptional buy for them, observing: “In Quinton de Kock, you have got a player who is 29 years old, and plays just white-ball cricket. You got him for 6.75 crores; he will open and hit, and he is left-handed. Phenomenal buy.”
However, De Kock is likely to open with Rahul for Lucknow whereas he can also keep which will allow Rahul to concentrate on the captaincy as well. Aakash Chopra said that Deepak Hooda and Manish Pandey at Rs 5.75 and Rs 4.6 crore respectively were cheap buys for them as well.
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He stated: “You see Manish Pandey and Deepak Hooda, and then you think Rahul Tewatia, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi – they were all expensive; Manish Pandey and Deepak Hooda seem to be a steal. After that, Marcus Stoinis, Krunal Pandya and Jason Holder. They also have Krishnappa Gowtham. No team has so many all-rounders. I mean go to this team if you want to make a list of multi-faceted cricketers.”
“Avesh Khan, Mark Wood, Ravi Bishnoi, Dushmantha Chameera, gave themselves the option of Evin Lewis as an opener. They also have Kyle Mayers, and have an option in Manan Vohra as well. This is a phenomenal team,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
