Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan has commended batter Devdutt Padikkal's move to the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), describing it as fantastic. In a double trade between LSG and Rajasthan Royals (RR), pacer Avesh Khan went to the Jaipur-based franchise, and Lucknow acquired Padikkal.
Padikkal has been in exceptional form during the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy, notching up five consecutive 50-plus scores. In the competition, he has amassed 465 runs in five matches, with scores of 114, 93*, 70, 117, and 71*.
In an interview with Star Sports, Pathan mentioned that LSG likely identified specific domestic players since they released a considerable number of Indian players on the IPL 2024 retention deadline. LSG released eight players in total, seven of whom were Indian.
"There will actually be a lot of work done by their scouts because they have taken out a lot of domestic players. So domestic matches become very important. So they must have identified players whom they want to get from domestic matches," said Pathan.
Continuing his comments, he expressed that Padikkal's transfer to LSG is an excellent decision, emphasising the team's requirement for backup Indian players rather than those immediately fitting into the starting XI. On the retention deadline day, LSG released Jaydev Unadkat, Daniel Sams, Manan Vohra, Swapnil Singh, Karan Sharma, Arpit Guleria, Suryansh Shedge, and Karun Nair.
"Apart from that, it's pretty sorted. I think Devdutt Padikkal's move is fantastic. So what they need to do is to get good domestic cricketers as a backup, not the frontline playing XI players," Pathan added.
In addition to parting ways with eight players, the Lucknow-based franchise has undergone significant alterations in its management. They've enlisted the expertise of former Australia coach Justin Langer while discontinuing the services of former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir in his role as their mentor.
Players retained by LSG
KL Rahul, Quinton de Kock, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Deepak Hooda, K Gowtham, Krunal Pandya, Kyle Mayers, Marcus Stoinis, Prerak Mankad, Yudhvir Singh, Mark Wood, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, Ravi Bishnoi, Yash Thakur, Amit Mishra, Naveen-ul-Haq.
(Powered by AI, Inputs by India Today)
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