"The second was Rishabh, then Yuzi" - Sanjiv Goenka on LSG's plans in IPL 2025 auction

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) owner Sanjiv Goenka has disclosed that Rishabh Pant was central to all their plans heading into the IPL 2025 auction. He revealed that the franchise wanted Jos Buttler and then Yuzvendra Chahal as their second acquisitions, but couldn't buy either.

LSG bought Pant for a whopping ₹27 crore at the auction. The Gujarat Titans (GT) and the Punjab Kings (PBKS) pipped the Super Giants to acquire Buttler (₹15.75 crore) and Chahal (₹18 crore), respectively.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel 'Aakash Chopra', the former India opener asked Goenka about the Lucknow Super Giants' approach at the auction.

"You have a plan A, you have a plan B, and you have a plan C. Rishabh was fixed in all our plans - A, B and C. The first plan was to go with Rishabh and Jos. So these were the two key players. We didn't succeed in getting Jos. The second was Rishabh, then Yuzi. We didn't succeed," he responded (6:00).

The RPSG group chairman added that LSG had to resort to their third option of picking an all-Indian seam attack and a formidable middle order.

"The third thing was that we will go with an all-Indian pace attack and a solid middle order. So we had to fall back on our third plan. We are happy with the outcome and the result, of course, but you have to think on your feet and it helps that you have people like Zak (Zaheer Khan) with you at that moment, and that experience and wisdom become very useful," Goenka observed.

LSG have Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, Avesh Khan, Akash Deep, Akash Singh and Rajvardhan Hangargekar as part of their Indian seam-bowling contingent. Apart from Rishabh Pant, the franchise has Nicholas Pooran, David Miller, Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Ayush Badoni and Abdul Samad as the prominent middle-order batting options.

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"Our attempt is to leave players and let them play their natural game" - Sanjiv Goenka on his approach as LSG owner

The Lucknow Super Giants failed to reach the playoffs in IPL 2024. [P/C: iplt20.com]

In the same video, Aakash Chopra asked Sanjiv Goenka whether he took inputs from Rishabh Pant about the players to be picked during the auction and his approach as owner during the tournament.

"There was a dialogue for sure. Eventually, our job is to create a team. After that, it's over to the coach, the mentor, and the captain. We as owners do recognize that there are 14 games, you aren't going to win all of them, and cannot win as well," he replied (7:15).

"You are going to win some, you are going to lose some, as long as you win enough to qualify to begin with, and then it's anybody's game once you have qualified. So our attempt is to leave players and let them play their natural game, and if you lose, you lose fighting, you don't lose surrendering," Goenka added.

Goenka noted that he sees 'the spirit to fight till the last ball' in Rishabh Pant. He added that an extremely important virtue of a leader is how he inspires the team.