There was an interesting move made by the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) today as they benched pacer Naveen-ul-Haq for their match against Gujarat Titans despite him performing brilliantly in the IPL 2023.
Some fans have conjured up conspiracy theories that this move could have been forced by LSG owner Sanjeev Goenka because of Naveen-ul-Haq’s fight with Virat Kohli in the RCB-LSG game earlier this season.
There was a big tussle between the RCB star, Virat Kohli, and the LSG’s Afghanistan pacer, Naveen-ul-Haq, during that match. Naveen-ul-Haq was fined 50 percent of his match fees while Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir, for being involved in an ugly brawl, were fined 100 percent of their match fees.
After the match, and the tussles, Kohli was also seen shaking hands with the LSG owner Sanjeev Goenka.
However, there is no such influence from the owner in making this decision and it is all a tactical move by LSG. Here it’s explained:
Why was Naveen-ul-Haq dropped from today’s match?
LSG included Quinton de Kock in the side after the injury to KL Rahul and hence, to maintain, the 4 overseas quota, Naveen-ul-Haq was dropped.
In the absence of the injured Mark Wood, Naveen-ul-Haq has done well for LSG: in 4 bowling innings, he’s taken 7 wickets and maintained a brilliant economy of 6.12.
Against RCB, he’d taken 3/30, but it was when he came to bat, trying to win LSG the match, then he had a heated altercation with Virat Kohli. After the match as well, both had a go at each other.
Krunal Pandya is leading LSG now in the absence of KL Rahul.
Teams:
Lucknow Super Giants (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), Kyle Mayers, Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya(c), Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, Swapnil Singh, Yash Thakur, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan, Avesh Khan
Gujarat Titans (Playing XI): Wriddhiman Saha(w), Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya(c), Vijay Shankar, David Miller, Abhinav Manohar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Mohit Sharma, Noor Ahmad, Mohammed Shami
