Lucknow Super Giants mentor Gautam Gambhir gives a big statement about players

The new Lucknow-based Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise has revealed its name today – the Lucknow Super Giants. The franchise has also roped in former India player Gautam Gambhir as its mentor. Gambhir, who had a great IPL experience as he led the Kolkata Knight Riders to the IPL titles twice, has opened up on his new role.

Gambhir spoke to journalist Boria Majumdar on ‘Backstage with Boria’ and said: “When I’ve captained, I have always said I don’t want players thinking of playing for India. I want players thinking of playing for the franchise. Playing for India is just the byproduct,” Gambhir said.

He continued: “If you think of playing for India and you start saying that Lucknow gives me that platform to play for India, then you are being dishonest to the franchise. But if you were to play for Lucknow and deliver it for Lucknow, eventually you will end up playing for India.”

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“So probably in those two months, I would not want any of the players saying or thinking that my job or my ultimate aim is to play for India. Their ultimate aim for those two months is to win the tournament for the franchise. And if they look to do that with their performances, they will eventually go on to play for India. And IPL is not a platform to go on to play for India. IPL is a platform to showcase your talent to the world, and that is how players should think about it,” Gautam Gambhir further added.

Meanwhile, the Sanjiv Goenka-owned RPSG group has bought the Lucknow franchise. Sanjiv Goenka, who earlier owned former IPL franchise Rising Pune Super Giant, has said that they will go into the auction with an open mind.

He stated: “With an open mind. With a plan, but completely open mind. There will be moments in those two days when you’ll have to think on your feet, when things don’t go as per the way you want it to go. So you’ll have to think, you’ll have to respond, you’ll have to act fast. There will be certain decisions which will be based on logic and data. There might be a couple which will go on instinct.”

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He continued: “I remember it was when we were doing the Pune auction in the second year and there was a question of Ben Stokes. The analyst told us he is not someone who’s consistent in his temperament and the ECB will only allow him to be there for 12 games. And I was looking at his track record of winning games. And I said you need to win 8 games out of 14 to get in to the playoffs. If he can deliver 5 games for me, that’s my job more than 50 per cent done. So I went for broke on Ben Stokes,” he said.

However, the Lucknow Super Giants have picked Marcus Stoinis and Ravi Bishnoi apart from KL Rahul.

He concluded: “We paid a reasonably high sum and he actually delivered five games and almost a sixth game to us. It was not a decision that was based on logic. It was that instinct at that point of time and it paid dividends.”