Highlights:
- Lucknow IPL Franchise spent Rs.17 crore to rope KL Rahul as captain.
- Marcus Stoinis and Ravi Bishnoi are the two other draft picks of Lucknow team.
- Gautam Gambhir will serve as a mentor for Lucknow franchise.
- The mega auction IPL-2022 will take place in February in Bengaluru.
IPL-2022:
The Indian Premier League (IPL)-2022 is a fifteenth season of IPL. It is a professional T20 Cricket league established by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2007. The fifteenth edition will see the expansion of the league, with the addition of two new franchises. In August 2021, the BCCI confirmed that two new franchises would join the IPL-2022 league. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) is the defending champions of last season.

Mega Auction of IPL-2022:
The mega auction for the IPL-2022 is to be held on February 12 and 13, 2022. The venue of the auction is Bengaluru. It will be a two-day event like the 2018 mega auction.
KL Rahul officially named captain for Lucknow Franchise:
The Lucknow franchise was owned by the chairperson of RPSG Group of Sanjiv Goenka. The group bought the rights of the team at an amount of Rs.7090 crore. He announced the 3 new signings on January 21st-2022 (Friday). Lucknow IPL franchise officially announced their new captain named KL Rahul. They picked KL Rahul for Rs.17 crore. They also roped Australia all-rounder Marcus Stoinis for Rs.9.2 crore and former Punjab Kings leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi for Rs.4 crore.
Sanjiv Goenka, owner of the Lucknow franchise said, “I have been really impressed by the leadership skills of KL Rahul. He is a phenomenal leader”.
He also added, “Marcus is a great finisher, a good bowler and a phenomenal fielder. Ravi brings a unique dimension to the spin department and is an exceptional fielder”.

After the retention was confirmed, KL Rahul said, “It’s an honour to the part of Lucknow IPL and RPSG group. And thanks to Sanjeev Goenka”.
KL Rahul – A highest paid IPL player:
Lucknow franchise picked up KL Rahul for Rs.17 crore. Now, he has become the joint-highest-paid player in the IPL history. This is because this amount is more than all the players retained in this season. Secondly, before this Virat Kohli has been getting 17 crores from 2018 till now, but this time RCB has retained him for 15 crores.

Virat was the most expensive player till now, Chris Morris was at number two:
In the year 2018, RCB retained Virat Kohli for 17 crores. Since then till now he has been getting 17 crores. However, this season his salary has been cut by 2 crores. Now they will get 15 crores. Chris Morris has become the second most expensive player in IPL after Virat. This all-rounder player from South Africa was bought by Rajasthan Royals in the 2021 auction for 16.25 crores. However, recently this player has retired from all forms of cricket. This time he will not even appear in the IPL.
KL Rahul – About:
KL Rahul has been one of the most consistent performers with the bat in the IPL since 2018. He had taken over the captain of Punjab Kings captain in IPL 2020 and 2021. However, after two unsuccessful campaigns with Punjab, Rahul sought to move to a new franchise.
Punjab Kings agreed to Rahul’s request and released him when they announced their retentions for IPL-2022 in December 2021. The Punjab Kings (PBKS) franchise picked Mayank Agarwal as their captain, retaining him along with Arshdeep Singh.
KL Rahul is a leading run-scorer who has scored 2500 runs in the last four seasons of IPL. He has played total of 94 matches-3273 runs at a strike rate of 136.38.
Marcus Stoinis and Ravi Bishnoi:
Lucknow franchise finalised Marcus Stoinis as their overseas recruit. He is a huge pick (Rs.9.2 crore) by the Lucknow team as he has been an integral part of Delhi Capitals side over the past few seasons.
Stoinis is an Australian all-rounder and a hard-hitting middle-order batsman. He can also chip in with overs of medium pace and is the cream of the crop as far as pace bowling all-rounders are considered in the IPL auction. Not just that, he was a key member of the Australian team that won the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup last year and has been in great form in the ongoing Big Bash League too. He has played total of 56 matches-914 runs at a strike rate of 135.81. He also picked up 30 wickets at an economy rate of 9.5.
The third draft pick is another former Punjab Kings player. The former U-19 World Cup star and impressive young leg-spinner Ravi Bisnoi has been named as the third pick by Lucknow franchise (Rs.4 crore). He has shone as one of the more promising player over the last couple of years and will relish the chance to be the lead spinner at the new franchise He has played total of 23 matches and picked up 24 wickets at an economy rate of 6.97.
Lucknow IPL Franchise Draft Picks:
- KL Rahul (Captain) – Rs 17 Crore
- Marcus Stoinis – Rs 9.2 Crore
- Ravi Bishnoi – Rs 4 Crore

On January 22nd-2022, Ahmedabad and Lucknow franchises were asked to submit the list of their draft picks.