Ahead of the Lucknow Super Giants’ (LSG) IPL 2024 match against the Mumbai Indians (MI) in Lucknow on Tuesday (April 30), Aakash Chopra has added that Nicholas Pooran is one of the players to watch out for. With 10 points from nine games, LSG are placed fifth on the points table as well. And, a win against MI will help them reach the top three as well.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra said, “Nicholas Pooran once again because I have so much confidence in him. I feel you will keep breathing till he is there. He will keep hitting sixes. The side boundaries are huge but it doesn’t matter to him. He says they might be big but he will still manage.”
“He got out in the last match off the first ball after the strategic timeout. So he might be regretting that. If you bat first and he doesn’t score runs, you are at least 20-25 runs short. That’s what happened. No bowler apart from (Jasprit) Bumrah has performed well thus far, so you must back Nicholas Pooran,” the former India opener further added.
However, Nicholas Pooran has smashed 291 runs which came at an excellent strike rate of 165.34 in nine innings in IPL 2024 as well. The left-handed middle-order batter has smashed 22 sixes, which is the most by any LSG batter this season as well. Aakash Chopra also picked KL Rahul as another Lucknow Super Giants player in to watch out for.
“Let’s go towards KL Rahul because he likes Mumbai a lot. Mumbai is also his in-laws’ place and he scores a lot of runs against Mumbai. He has scored the most runs against Mumbai. I remember his century at the Wankhede. He played brilliantly. I remember a game in Indore as well when he just extended his shot and hit Bumrah over cover. Whenever you see this team, you feel he is this team’s axle. Everything revolves around him. So we will focus on KL Rahul. I can go with Marcus Stoinis as well, or else I am thinking let me pick a bowler this time. It could be Mohsin Khan and if Mayank Yadav is available and plays, it could be him. So any one of the two whose name starts with M. It could be Mohsin or Mayank, you can pick whoever you want,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
