‘Always admired him and his aggression’ – KL Rahul praises Lucknow Super Giants' mentor Gautam Gambhir

The big reveal of the name of Lucknow franchise name happened on Monday, January 24. The team would be called Lucknow Super Giants. KL Rahul has been roped in by the franchise along with Ravi Bishnoi and Marcus Stoinis. Rahul mentioned that he has been a fan of the team’s mentor Gautam Gambhir’s aggression since his time with the Kolkata Knight Riders.

He specifically mentioned how he is planning to learn from Gambhir who led KKR to victory in 2012 and 2014. Rahul also stated that he is very excited about his new journey and also a little nervous about the mega auction that is scheduled for next month.

Rahul appeared on Boria Majumdar’s YouTube channel, Revsportz, and spoke in detail about the franchise. Sanjiv Goenka, Lucknow Super Giants’ owner also revealed the name of the franchise during this interaction. When asked about Gambhir, Rahul said:

“Always been an admirer of him and how he has captained KKR when he played and his aggression. So there’s so much to learn from him as well, so I’m very excited about this journey. The auction’s coming up in a few weeks’ time, which is making me a little nervous, but that is the exciting part of the IPL, so fingers crossed.”

Here’s the video of KL Rahul’s interaction with Boria Majumdar

Breaking- #LucknowSuperGiants Unplugged. In their first interview team owner Sanjiv Goenka, Captain @klrahul11 and mentor @GautamGambhir speak on the team name, auction plans, retentions and more. @rpsggroup pic.twitter.com/JxLvWjrEob

— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) January 24, 2022

The franchise has also roped in Former Indian wicketkeeper Vijay Dahiya as the assistant coach. Dahiya worked as an assistant coach for the KKR franchise when Gambhir was the team’s captain. Former Zimbabwe captain Andy Flower would be the head coach of the team. Flower was previously the assistant coach of Punjab Kings where Rahul was the captain.

The Super Giants is owned by RPSG Group which previously owned the now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiants in the IPL. The RPSG Group bought the Super Giants during the team auction last year for INR 7000 crores.

The next edition of the IPL will have two new teams – Lucknow and Ahmedabad. Ahmedabad is yet to announce the name of the franchise but has announced the players who will play for them. Ahmedabad has roped in Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya as the captain along with Shubman Gill and Rashid Khan.