The Lucknow franchise in the IPL have finalised on their picks ahead of the IPL Auction and have gone with KL Rahul as one of the three players.
Along with Rahul, who is currently leading India in an ODI series in South Africa, Lucknow have decided to go with Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis and young Indian leg spinner Ravi Bishnoi.
According Cricinfo, this leaves the Lucknow franchise with a purse of INR 60 Cr going into the IPL Auction in February.
While Rahul cost Lucknow INR 15 crore, Stoinis was another INR 11 crore, and Bishnoi INR 4 crore. It was reported that Rahul will also captain the franchise.
The Lucknow franchise was bought by the RP Sanjiv Goenka Group for INR 7090 crore.
Rahul, who was captain of the Punjab franchise for the last two seasons, began his IPL career in 2013 with Royal Challengers Bangalore.
In his IPL career, Rahul has played 94 games, scoring 3,273 runs with a highest of 132*. In his four years with Punjab, Rahul finishes off as the leading run scorer for the team, scoring 2548 runs at an average of 56.62 including 25 fifty-plus scores - two of them hundreds - in just 55 innings.
Australian Stoinis had started off in 2015 with the Delhi Daredevils, but it was only since 2020 that his career in the IPL took off with the Delhi Capitals. In the 27 matches he has played for the Capitals, 32-year-old Stoinis scored 441 runs at a strike rate of 142.71 and picked 15 wickets. In between, he had also turned out for Punjab and Royal Challengers. Overall, Stoinis has played 56 games and scored 914 runs in his IPL career.
Bishnoi meanwhile came into the spotlight in the 2020 U-19 World Cup for India where he finished as the leading wicket-taker and was one of the most sought after uncapped players in the IPL after that.
Bishnoi did well for Punjab, who eventually won a bidding war with Mumbai Indians, and took 12 wickets in 14 matches in his first season, and in 2021, he had 12 wickets from nine matches. Overall, he has an economy rate of 6.95.
Meanwhile, the other new franchise on the block, Ahmedabad, have roped in Hardik Pandya, Rashid Khan and Shubman Gill as their picks ahead of the IPL Auction which is scheduled for 12 and 13 February in Bangalore.
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