Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra feels Nicholas Pooran and Marcus Stoinis‘ performances in IPL 2023 may determine the Lucknow Super Giants’ (LSG) success in the next season.
On Friday, December 23, at the mini-auction in Kochi, the Super Giants purchased Pooran for a staggering INR 16 crore. They spent a total of INR 3.8 crore on nine additional players.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra reflected on some of the Lucknow Super Giants’ acquisitions at the auction. Regarding Pooran, he said:
“Nicholas Pooran is their biggest purchase. They broke the entire bank on Nicholas Pooran. Their fortunes will solely depend on how they use Nicholas Pooran and Marcus Stoinis. They haven’t been able to use Marcus Stoinis well thus far. We will have to see how Nicholas Pooran plays because he might just hold the key to everything.”
For the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) in IPL 2022, Pooran scored 306 runs at a respectable average of 38.25 and an amazing strike rate of 144.33. He had a mediocre year with the Windies in T20I cricket, though, and resigned as their skipper for limited overs when they were unable to advance to the Super 12 stage of the T20 World Cup.
“Nicholas Pooran is a perfect example of supply and demand. The last year was extremely ordinary but he was very expensive. But he has gone even more expensive this year, he has left his team’s captaincy as well. His stars are going down if you see his performances but if you see his price, you say wow.”
As for some of the other Lucknow Super Giants’ buys, Chopra observed:
“Jaydev Unadkat is a good acquisition, they got him at base price. They have added more all-rounders in the form of Daniel Sams and Romario Shepherd. They have picked a leg-spinner in the form of Amit Mishra.”
“Amit Mishra and Ayush Badoni could be their impact player” – Aakash Chopra
The former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) player believes that Amit Mishra and Ayush Badoni can serve as the team’s impact players in the bowling and batting departments, respectively. He elaborated:
“Amit Mishra could be their designated impact player in bowling. If I see in the batting, Ayush Badoni could be their impact player because the rest of them are all-rounders, whether it is Quinton de Kock, KL Rahul, Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya, Marcus Stoinis or Nicholas Pooran.”
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