After talking about the auction Strategy and doing a team analysis of the 8 teams who were there from before, it is now time to talk about the 2 new teams and in particular we will talk about the Lucknow team who did really well in the mega auction considering it was their first mega auction and they have assembled a good team which can challenge for the IPL title in its first year and with Gautam Gambhir as it’s mentor z ir should have been expected.
The Lucknow franchise is owned by the RP- Sanjiv Goenka group which owned the Pune team for 2 years so they have some experience so they have done a much better job of assembling their team at the mega auction than the Gujarat team so let’s look at their auction strategy and do a SWOT analysis of the Lucknow team.
Auction Strategy :
Before going into the auction they already had three quality players in KL Rahul, Marcus Stoinis and Ravi Bishnoi so they needed a good core team which can play all the matches and have their backups in case of emergency and on the first day that did just that. They got Quinton De Kock from the marquee, forming a deadly opening partnership at the top with KL Rahul and QDK. Then they got some good all rounders in Jason Holder, Deepak Hooda but they should have not paid this much for Krunal Pandya. They bought some very good fast bowlers in Mark Wood, Avesh Khan and Dushmantha Chambers but their spin attack is weak if we remove Ravi Bishnoi from the team so that is a weakness.
Team Analysis :
Some general thoughts on this team before we do a SWOT analysis include that they have found their first starting 11 and it is a good one but their spin attack and the Indian fast bowling department other than Avesh Khan is ordinary as well.
Strengths:
One of their biggest strengths is that they have one of the strongest playing 11 of the whole IPL and especially their opening partnership of KL Rahul and QDK is really good and their fast bowling attack is one of the best in the IPL as well as they have some really good all rounders in their team as well so they have a teak that can challenge for the title in a realistic wa vin their first year.
Weaknesses:
They also have a few weaknesses like their number 3 position which has Manish Pandey in it now and that doesn’t give that much confidence to their fans and their spin bowling attack is not the strongest in the IPL other than Ravi Bishnoi and their Indian fast bowling department is rather weak if we remove Avesh Khan from the line-up so there are weaknesses they have to sort out.
Opportunities:
They might have one of the biggest opportunities In the IPL this year by becoming the IPL winners in their first year of playing and that will be an incredible achievement for them as well as players like Avesh Khan can show the Indian team why he should be fast tracked to the Indian team and Manish Pandey can show his best form and shut all the doubters and most importantly KL Rahul can show that he is a great captain who can lead him team to an IPL title.
Threat:
The other teams will look at their spin bowling line-up and their Indian pace bowling attack and feel that they can attack those bowlers and score lots of runs against the Lucknow team and their number 3 can be exploited by the opposition bowling attacks who will look to get quick wickets and get into the middle order quickly. So the Lucknow franchise has to look at these threats and find a way to get past them.
