Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) fielding coach Jonty Rhodes has praised KL Rahul’s impact as captain since their inception in 2022. Under his leadership, LSG made it to the playoffs in each of their first two seasons as well. However, a disappointing seventh-place finish in the 2024 edition along with Rahul’s inability to score quickly at the start, has led to some uncertainty.

However, Jonty Rhodes also noted how Rahul had the task of leading a brand-new team, and has done a great job of laying down the standards to make it to the playoffs in past editions as well.

“I think if you look at a record as a captain of a brand-new franchise, getting into the playoffs every time like he has, it’s been something that goes a long way towards his captaincy, to the way that he leads the team and the sort of set up and the approach that he has,” Rhodes said in an interview with India Today. “So you know, to look at Rohit’s record as a captain, Dhoni’s record as a captain, the trophies that those guys have won and the consistency that they’ve done to winning trophies, from LSG’s point of view, it might just be one thing getting into the final, winning the trophy.”

However, KL Rahul was one of the three pre-auction signings that LSG made before the 2022 auction along with Ravi Bishnoi and Marcus Stoinis. Rhodes also recalled MI’s initial struggle while winning the IPL title, and believes LSG are going through a similar phase as well.

“It then turns out MI didn’t win a trophy for quite a few years at the start. Once they learned how to win trophies, they kept going and kept going. So I think from that point of view, I think he’s done an excellent job at the helm, with a brand new franchise, setting up a new culture, with new owners and, and that I think is an indication of how well he’s captained the team in a set-up where there are players from all over the country in India who are very different and all over the world,” Jonty Rhodes concluded.