Former India opener and two times IPL winning captain Gautam Gambhir has picked Mark Wood as the most important buy of the first day at the auction for Lucknow Super Giants.
Gambhir who is working as the team mentor for the franchise is quite satisfied with their first day at the auction. He opined that Avesh Khan was an incredible buy for them as it’s rare to get an Indian fast bowler who can click 90mph regularly. He also pointed out that Mark Wood and Jason Holder would make a fantastic pace bowling unit for them.
“With these two add Avesh Khan to the list as well. The reason being that for an Indian fast bowler to deliver at a speed of 140-145kmph. De Kock is a world-class batsman, he can open the batting.
“Holder is multi-dimensional, can bowl and bat. But an express fast bowler with Mark Wood, that was my most important buy in this auction. Because there are very few Indian fast bowlers who can bowl at that speed,” he said.
Quinton de Kock was previously associated with 5-time champion Mumbai Indians while Jason Holder was an integral part of Sunrisers Hyderabad previously.
However, there are doubts over Mark Wood’s availability for the entire season as he plays all 3 formats for England so they might look after his workload management carefully. England will also play a test series against New Zealand in the first week of June so he is unlikely to be available for the playoffs.
“There are very few Indian fast bowlers who can match Avesh Khan’s speed”- Gautam Gambhir
On the first day of the auction, Lucknow Super Giants made lots of moves as they bought a total of 8 players. Earlier they picked KL Rahul, Marcus Stoinis, and Ravi Bishnoi ahead of the auction.
Apart from that they also bought Manish Pandey at a price of INR 4.60 Crores. They also got Ankit Rajpoot at a price of INR 50 Lakhs. At the end of the day-1, they had INR 6.90 crores available in their purse. It will be interesting to see how they fill the remaining slots.
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