IPL 2022 Auction: Aakash Chopra Lauds Lucknow Super Giants' Strategy

Former India opener and cricket commentator Aakash Chopra is known for his erudite analysis of the game and when it comes to the Indian Premier League (IPL) he is someone who does his homework really well. Chopra, who was part of the team of pundits on Star Sports during the broadcast of the IPL mega auction, on Tuesday took to Twitter and shared his opinion about the team that new franchise Lucknow Super Giants have managed to put together.

Chopra was all praise for the team management, mentor Gautam Gambhir, head coach Andy Flower and owner Sanjiv Goenka, for their strategy during the auction. The former KKR batter singled out what he thinks is the biggest strength of the squad, which is having players who can contribute with both bat and ball.

"It's their first ever auction, but @LucknowIPL have aced it in my opinion," Chopra posted on Twitter along with a video in which he explained the reason behind his high rating for the team.

It's their first ever auction, but @LucknowIPL have aced it in my opinion. Find out what I have to say about their buys in this clip. #IPLMegaAuction2022 pic.twitter.com/x9aJCg6HjW

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) February 15, 2022

"It is said that forming a team in your first auction is very difficult because you have to start from the scratch and there is nothing that you can look back to. There are some franchises who can look back at the decisions that worked for them and there are some who learn from the mistakes and opt for a clean slate. Keeping that in mind, I think Lucknow Super Giants (in their first auction) did a phenomenal job. For me they are 9 on 10," Chopra said.

LSG had named KL Rahul, Marcus Stoinis and Ravi Bishnoi in their draft pick and managed to bag some big names in the auction. They bought players like Jason Holder, Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya and Krishnappa Gowtham, all of whom can both bat and bowl.

Chopra also praised the team for getting an explosive batter like Quinton de Kock and for investing in pacers like Mark Wood, Dushmantha Chameera and Avesh Khan.

"Almost all key players can contribute with bat and ball and can be rotated in the batting order. That gives them a lot of depth in batting and the bowling attack also has a lot of variety," Chopra added.

Here's the full squad of Lucknow Super Giants:

KL Rahul, Avesh Khan, Marcus Stoinis, Jason Holder, Krunal Pandya, Mark Wood, Quinton de Kock, Deepak Hooda, Manish Pandey, Ravi Bishnoi, Dushmantha Chameera, Krishnappa Gowtham, Ankit Rajpoot, Mohsin Khan, Ayush Badoni, Kyle Mayers, Karan Sharma, Evin Lewis, Mayank Yadav, Manan Vohra, Shahbaz Nadeem.

Topics mentioned in this article

Lucknow Super Giants Gautam Gambhir Aakash Chopra Avesh Khan Jason Holder Krunal Pandya Quinton de Kock KL Rahul Marcus Stoinis Ashok Bishnoi Ravi Bishnoi IPL 2022 IPL Auction 2022 Cricket Social