Lucknow Super Giants skipper KL Rahul revealed the reason behind the franchise’s purchase of Nicholas Pooran for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 season ahead of their clash against four-time champion Chennai Super Kings.
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.”
Pooran was bought for 16 crores by LSG which made him the most expensive wicket-keeper in the history of the competition. He has played 47 IPL matches and scored 912 runs which includes four 50s.
Rahul also spoke about how the team wanted players who will put the team first and can contribute in both departments.
“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,” he said.
“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,” the LSG skipper added