Lucknow Super Giants fielding coach Jonty Rhodes has showered praise on skipper KL Rahul for laying the foundation of the franchise as a leader. LSG played their maiden season in the IPL in 2022 and the team was able to hit the ground running under Rahul’s leadership.
LSG qualified for the playoffs in their debut season and then repeated the same achievement in the following season. However, LSG could not make it to the last four teams in IPL 2024 as they finished in seventh place in the standings.
Rahul has an impressive record in the IPL, scoring 4683 runs in 132 matches at an average of 45.47 and a strike rate of 134.61.
“I think if you look at a record as a captain of a brand-new franchise, getting into the playoffs every time like he has, it’s been something that goes a long way towards his captaincy, to the way that he leads the team and the sort of set up and the approach that he has,” Rhodes said in an interview with India Today.
“So you know, to look at Rohit’s record as a captain, Dhoni’s record as a captain, the trophies that those guys have won and the consistency that they’ve done to winning trophies, from LSG’s point of view, it might just be one thing getting into the final, winning the trophy,” Rhodes added.
LSG had pre-signed KL Rahul, Ravi Bishnoi, and Marcus Stoinis before the IPL 2022 mega auction.
Meanwhile, Rhodes compared LSG’s run in the IPL with Mumbai Indians, stating that the latter had to wait for a few years before winning their maiden title.
“It then turns out MI didn’t win a trophy for quite a few years at the start. Once they learned how to win trophies, they kept going and kept going. So I think from that point of view, I think he’s done an excellent job at the helm, with a brand new franchise, setting up a new culture, with new owners and, and that I think is an indication of how well he’s captained the team in a set-up where there are players from all over the country in India who are very different and all over the world,” Rhodes concluded.
Rahul will look to lead from the front in the next season if he is retained as a skipper.
