India opener, KL Rahul, who is all set to lead India in the upcoming ODI series in South Africa, is one of the three players who have been selected by the Lucknow IPL franchise. Alongside him, Australia all-rounder Marcus Stoinis and uncapped Indian spinner Ravi Bishnoi are the other two players who have been picked as well.
As per ESPNcricinfo, the Lucknow franchise will go into the mega auction in February with a purse of INR 60 crore. However, they gave INR 15 crore to KL Rahul, INR 11 crore to Stoinis and INR 4 crore to Bishnoi as well. Moreover, Rahul will also lead the franchise.
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However, KL Rahul was the first player for the Lucknow franchise, who was bought for INR 7090 crore (USD 940 million approx.) last year. He is one of the most prolific batsmen in the cash-rich Indian Premier League since the 2018 IPL. He has earlier led Punjab Kings for two seasons too.
Apart from PBKS, he has played for Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2013, Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2014, again shifted to RCB in 2016 before going to the Punjab Kings franchise (then Kings XI Punjab) who paid INR 11 crore to buy him in the 2018 auction as well.
Although the team failed to do well, KL Rahul impressed everyone and finished as the leading run-getter for the team, amassing 2548 runs at an average of 56.62 including 25 fifty-plus scores, including two tons – in just 55 innings as well.
As for Marcus Stoinis, he made his IPL debut with Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) in 2015. He again played for Delhi in 2020 after being bought for INR 4.8 crore as well. In the 27 matches, he has played so far for Delhi, the veteran all-rounder Stoinis scored 441 runs at a strike rate of 142.71 and picked 15 wickets. Apart from Delhi, he had also played for Punjab and Royal Challengers Bangalore in between.
Meanwhile, the young Bishnoi made headlines in the 2020 Under-19 World Cup in South Africa, where he finished as the leading wicket-taker. And, he earned his maiden IPL contract too as Punjab bought him for INR 2 crore. He claimed 12 wickets in 14 matches in his first season, and in 2021, he had picked up 12 wickets from nine matches as well.
It will be interesting to see how they will perform this season.
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