KL Rahul has been named as captain of the Lucknow franchise ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction. Marcus Stoinis and Ravi Bishnoi are the two other draft picks of the team. This puts an end to several days of speculation after Punjab Kings have revealed while naming their retained players that Rahul had turned down the franchise's offer to retain him. Rahul has been a run machine at the top of the order for Punjab since moving to the franchise but he could not lead the side to the knock-outs as captain.
Rahul has been picked for Rs. 17 crore while Stoinis and Bishnoi have been signed for Rs. 9.2 crore and Rs. 4 crore, respectively.
Marcus Stoinis is a huge pick by the Lucknow team as he has been an integral part of Delhi Capitals side over the past few seasons, when the team qualified for their maiden IPL final (2020) and also made it to the knock-outs in the rest of the two seasons (2019 and 2021). Not just that, Stoinis was a key member of the Australian team that won the ICC T20 World Cup last year and has been in great form in the ongoing Big Bash League too.
The third pick is another former Punjab Kings player. Impressive young spinner Ravi Bisnoi has been named as the third pick by Lucknow and the decision clearly has KL Rahul's stamp all over it as Bishnoi had played and done well under Rahul's captaincy.
Here are the records of the three players in IPL over the years
KL Rahul
Matches: 94, Runs: 3273, Strike-rate: 136.38
Marcus Stoinis
Matches: 56, Runs: 914, Strike-rate: 135.81, Wickets: 30, Economy: 9.5
Ravi Bishnoi
Matches: 23, Wickets: 24, Economy: 6.97