Rishabh Pant Or Nicholas Pooran? LSG Boss Breaks Silence On Captaincy Plans

Sanjiv Goenka, the owner of IPL franchise Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), said the team's new captain has been decided and will be announced in the next few days ahead of the IPL 2025 season. LSG had been led by KL Rahul in IPL 2022-24 cycle, with Krunal Pandya captaining the team when the batter was ruled out from the later half of IPL 2023. But the franchise chose not to retain the duo ahead of the mega auction, which happened in Jeddah last month.

With Rahul now in the Delhi Capitals and Krunal in Royal Challengers Bengaluru, LSG have leadership options in previous Delhi Capitals skipper Rishabh Pant, current Australia and South Africa T20I skippers Mitchell Marsh and Aiden Markram, as well as West Indies' keeper-batter Nicholas Pooran, who led the national side previously.

“People get surprised easily. I don't think you get surprised easily. It's been decided. But we will announce in the next few days. We have four leaders in our team - Rishabh, Pooran, Markram, and Mitch Marsh.”

“So, it becomes a very strong leadership pool of intellect, though,t and strategy. They are all people who can go for the mindset to win. Rishabh has that hunger, and passion that he wants to win, and do something and show it. So, the team is good and we are happy,” said Goenka in a video on former India opener Aakash Chopra's YouTube channel on Monday.

LSG had retained Pooran for Rs 21 crore, alongside Mayank Yadav and Ravi Bishnoi (Rs 11 crore each) as well as the uncapped duo of Ayush Badoni and Mohsin Khan for Rs 4 crore each. In the mega auction, they roped in Pant for Rs 27 crore, making him the most expensive signing ever in the IPL.

“Our internal feeling is that our auction was very good. Our focus was that our middle order and finishing