Nicholas Pooran was bought for 16 crore by LSG, making him the most expensive wicket-keeper in the history of the competition
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) skipper KL Rahul revealed the reason behind the franchise’s decision to purchase Nicholas Pooran for the ongoing IPL 2023 season ahead of their clash against four-time champion Chennai Super Kings. Notably, CSK are coming off after a loss against defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT) in the tournament opener.
Rahul highlighted that the team management wanted players who will put the team first and can contribute in both departments. The Caribbean cricketer was bought for 16 crores by LSG, making him the most expensive wicket-keeper in IPL history. He has so far played 48 IPL matches and scored 948 runs which include four 50s.
In LSG’s opening clash against CSK, Pooran gave a testament of his prowess with a cameo of 36 runs off 21 balls. His quickfire knock was crucial in propelling the IPL 2022 runners-up to a competitive total of 193 which paid off, as LSG won the contest by a big margin of 50 runs.
Speaking to Star Sports, Rahul said, “This year we felt like we needed someone in the middle order who can be explosive and can also give us some finishing skills so Nicholas Pooran was a big buy for us and we were very excited again.”
The 30-year-old LSG skipper also mentioned his conversation with LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka and mentor Gautam Gambhir about player selection. He said, “The kind of team we picked we were very clear about the individuals we wanted and speaking to Sanjiv sir and Gautam Gambhir and the rest of the support staff that we will try and build a team of players who put their team first who are team players and who can contribute in two areas of the game.”
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Rahul further added, “I feel T20 is heading that way and we have also seen that. Successful franchises are filled with all-rounders. So we’re very clear about getting a lot of all-rounders in our team so if you see we started with retaining Stoinis and we got KP (Krunal Pandya), we got Jason Holder and Hooda who can bowl a few overs and did bowl a few overs last year. It goes on.”
