Monday, March 28 will mark the opening match in the IPL 2022 for debutants Gujarat Lions and Lucknow Super Giants. The two teams, led by Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul will be hoping for a good start in order to build a winning momentum for the remainder of the season. While this will be Rahul’s second assignment as captain of an IPL team – he had previously led Punjab Kings, for Pandya, this will be his first-time captaining in the Indian Premier League.
Both franchises fought it out at the IPL mega auction last month and were able to assembled a strong squad of 25 players. However, among the two, the legendary Sunil Gavaskar reckons one team has the edge over the other when it comes to the opening combination. GT are likely to open with Shubman Gill and Rahmanullah Gurbaz whereas LSG's contenders are captain Rahul and South Africa's Quinton de Kock. Between the two, Gavaskar’s choice was obvious.
"KL Rahul and Quinton de Kock's right-hand and left-hand combination makes a devastating opening pair and they can get the team off to a flying start," he stated. "The best part about Quinton de Kock is the fact that he also has captaincy experience. He has been a captain of South Africa and knows all formats of the game. He knows what team building is all about because we are talking about a different team now. He will be very keen to contribute towards the team building process," Gavaskar said on Star Sports' show 'Gameplan'.
Rahul has been unstoppable in the previous four editions of the IPL, amassing 659, 593, 670 and 626 runs for PBKS. Gavaskar weighed in on Rahul’s stint as Punjab captain and how different is it expected to be with the new franchise LSG.
{{/usCountry}}Rahul has been unstoppable in the previous four editions of the IPL, amassing 659, 593, 670 and 626 runs for PBKS. Gavaskar weighed in on Rahul’s stint as Punjab captain and how different is it expected to be with the new franchise LSG.
{{/usCountry}}"When he was the captain of Punjab Kings, he seemed to be preoccupied, maybe he was not getting the 11 that he wanted. The new franchise Lucknow Super Giants is going to be a different challenge for KL and if he can bat the way he did in previous seasons and take the team to the knockouts if not actually the finals, then he would have taken a big step forward as far as his own cricketing career is concerned," Gavaskar added.