The auction for the two new Indian Premier League franchises. These two teams will be part of the competition from the 2022 season, was completed on Monday. It was announced that one of the new teams will be from Lucknow and the other from Ahmedabad.
The RP-Sanjiv Goenka group, won the bid for the Lucknow franchise. This will be their second raid into the IPL. The group previously owned the Rising Pune Supergiants (RPSG) in 2016 and 2017.
New franchises will get a chance to build strong teams as Mega Auction coming up next year.
Both the franchises will have plenty of options to choose from to lead them.
Let’s look at 3 players who can lead Lucknow franchise:
1) Steve Smith
Steve Smith has strong connections with the RPSG group. Steve was appointed as the captain of the Supergiant team, even leading them to the final in IPL 2017.
Steve is one of the most consistent batsman. Sanjiv Goenka group will definitely be looking to acquire in for him. The Australian skipper would be a strong contender to lead the team in the IPL next year. Smith can be a great support for them to build their batting lineup around.
There can be cons of having an overseas player as captain. This makes difficult for team to drop him if not in form. Steve also eats up one of four slots for overseas players. But Smith is a consistent batter and can guarantee that he commands his spot.
Smith even led the Rajasthan Royals as recently as IPL 2020 and has captained Australia at the international level. He is definitely one of the favorite for the Lucknow franchise.
2) Suresh Raina
Suresh Raina is one of the biggest names in Indian cricket. Raina can be a big influence. Especially since he has represented Uttar Pradesh at the domestic level since the beginning of his career
Raina was vice-captain of CSK. There can be chances of veteran decide to leave CSK, due to the perk of having captaincy. This could be the final chapter in his playing career, having won the tournament with the team he has been so loyal to this year.
CSK did not play IPL for two years, Raina was appointed as captain of Gujarat Lions and did well. Raina leaded them to a top-of-the-table finish in 2016. But they lost in the first Qualifier and then the Eliminator.
If the Lucknow franchise can somehow snap him up CSK, Raina would be a great option to have as a captain. He would bring them experience, talent and great brand value.
3) David Warner
David Warner is expected to be a sought-after player in the upcoming IPL mega auction. The Australian played a key part in leading Sunrisers Hyderabad to their maiden IPL title in 2016.
While the story of Hyderabad and Warner came to a bitter end in IPL 2021, he is most likely to be up for grabs in the auction.
With 5449 runs in the IPL at an average of 41.59 and a strike rate of 139.96, opening batters in T20s don’t come much better than David Warner. The southpaw became the first player to win the Orange Cap three times in the IPL in 2019.
While his recent run of bad form has raised some questions, perhaps no foreign captain would be a better fit to lead a new franchise in the IPL than David Warner.