In their maiden IPL season, the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) reached the playoffs after finishing third in the points table. However, KL Rahul’s team was eliminated by RCB in the Eliminator. It was still, though, an impressive season for the IPL debutants.
However, the LSG have made a few bold decisions in releasing some of the established international stars.
Players released by LSG: Jason Holder, Dushmantha Chameera, Evin Lewis, Andrew Tye, Manish Pandey, Ankit Rajpoot, Shahbaz Nadeem
The franchise that is mentored by Gautam Gambhir and coached by Andy Flower will look to get an upgrade on these released players and fill the holes from the last season in the upcoming IPL 2023 mini-auction. LSG have a handsome purse of INR 23.35 crore after releasing these players.
Here are 3 players that the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) go could hard after during the IPL 2023 auction:
Ben Stokes/ Sam Curran
LSG have released the experienced Jason Holder and also white-ball renowned pacers Chameera and Tye, and have made a big space in their purse. You can expect Gautam Gambhir to bid severely for either of the two England all-rounders in the auction: Ben Stokes and Sam Curran.
Both the all-rounders have had success in both departments. Stokes returned to T20I in T20 WC with a fifty in the final against Pakistan and also regularly bowled with the new ball and in the middle-overs; while Curran was the Player of the Tournament for taking 13 wickets, 10 of which were in the death overs, and took 3 wickets in the final to bag the Man of the Match award.
Sikandar Raza
LSG struggled with a middle-order slot last season and tried the likes of Pandey, Vohra, Badoni, and Evin Lewis – two of these four have been released. They’d want to lock that slot in the auction.
The coach Andy Flower could turn to his countryman Sikandar Raza, who was recently in stunning form in the T20 WC. Not only Raza brings assurance as a batsman in the middle order – he’s capable of playing both the anchor and the aggressor role – but also is a good spin-bowling option.
In the T20 WC, Sikandar Raza scored 219 runs at a strike rate of 147 and picked 10 wickets at an economy of 6.5. It feels that the 36-year-old could finally get his IPL cap.
Jaydev Unadkat
Jaydev Unadkat was released by Mumbai Indians after a rather disappointing IPL 2022 season with the ball – 6 wickets in 5 matches at an economy of 9.5. However, the Saurashtra pacer has continued his success in domestic cricket, and recently, after many years of hard toil got a comeback call to the national team.
What Unadkat brings is vast experience of not only playing in Indian conditions but also in the IPL – he’s played in 91 IPL games since making his IPL debut in 2010 – and experience if what LSG’s Indian bowling contingent lacked last season with Mohsin and Avesh. LSG might look at Unadkat seriously as an in-form pacer who can lead their pace attack in 2023.
