IPL 2024: Why Nicholas Pooran is captaining LSG instead of KL Rahul against PBKS - Revealed

Eyebrows were raised on Saturday (Mar 30) evening after Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) sensationally sent West Indies star Nicholas Pooran for toss as KL Rahul did not appear with the team news sheet for the Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter. With LSG set to play Punjab Kings (PBKS) for their first home match of the season, Rahul was training with the squad, however, it was a lack of fitness that forced him to hand the captain’s armband to Pooran. It was later revealed that Rahul was playing as an Impact Player and therefore won’t be playing the entire 40 overs.

“We'll bat first. Looks like a good track, runs on the board could be vital. KL is coming back from injury and we're looking to give him a break in such a long tournament, but he'll play as an impact player today. Everyone must take the opportunities and perform at their best,” Nicholas Pooran said at toss to Murali Kartik.

Rahul is not 100 per cent which promoted the team management to push for the move while allowing debuts for Mayank Yadav and Manimaran Siddarth. KL Rahul will have a tense couple of months to come considering he is not guaranteed a spot in the T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies. In his only match of the IPL 2024, Rahul has scored 58 runs against Rajasthan Royals where they were on the losing side.

Interestingly, LSG have named only three overseas players in their Playing XI, meaning they could sweep Rahul with an overseas player. Naveen-ul-Haq is the obvious choice once Rahul leaves the field. At the time of writing, LSG were 78/3 with Rahul scoring 15 off 9.

For Punjab, they went unchanged under the captaincy of Shikhar Dhawan with Arshdeep Singh likely to be replaced by impact player Prabhsimran Singh. PBKS have so far won one and lost one in the IPL 2024.

Quinton de Kock (wk), KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Ayush Badoni, Nicholas Pooran (c), Marcus Stoinis, Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan, Mayank Yadav, Manimaran Siddharth

Shikhar Dhawan (c), Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Shashank Singh, Harpreet Brar, Harshal Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh