IPL 2022: KL Rahul-led franchise to be called Lucknow Super Giants
Lucknow is one of the two newest and most expensive teams in IPL history. It will make its debut in IPL 2022. It has been named Lucknow Super Giants.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 will witness a couple of new teams, with Ahmedabad and Lucknow entering the fray. In the meantime, the Lucknow team has finally earned its identity as its official team name has been announced. The franchise will be known as Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).
The name sounds similar to a former IPL team, Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS), also owned by RP Sanjiv Goenka Group between 2016-17. The Indian business tycoon has invested a whopping ₹7,090 crore, making it the most expensive IPL team to date. The franchise has already picked up three players as a part of its early-bird pick ahead of the IPL 2022 Mega Auction next month.
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The side will be led by wicketkeeper-opener KL Rahul, who was roped in for ₹17 crore, while it is the joint-highest price for a player along with Virat Kohli for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in 2008. The other two players happen to be Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis (₹9.2 crore) and uncapped Indian spinner Ravi Bishnoi (₹4 crore), while LSG will have an auction purse of ₹59 crore.
In the meantime, the other new IPL franchise Ahmedabad has yet to announce its team name officially. CVC Capital owns the franchise for ₹5,625 crore. After a thorough review of its connection with European betting companies, the team recently received its clearance from the Board of Control for Cricket of India (BCCI) and the IPL Governing Council.
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As for the players Ahmedabad has roped in are Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya (₹15 crore), along with Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan (₹15 crore) and Indian opener Shubman Gill (₹8 crore). Ahmedabad will have a purse of ₹52 crore during the mega auction.