IPL 2022: Lucknow IPL franchise announce official name, to be called Lucknow Super Giants

The IPL 2022 will be a 10-team affair with the addition of two new franchises- Lucknow and Ahmedabad respectively. It has been reported that the 15th edition of the marquee tournament will be entirely played in India behind closed doors for a period of two months starting the last week of March to May end.

The mega auction will be held on February 12 and 13 in Bengaluru. However, just weeks before the highly-anticipated event, Lucknow have officially announced the name of the team. Taking to the micro-blogging site, the team owner, as well as the Chairman of RPSG Group, unveiled the new name of the franchise as “Lucknow Super Giants”.

Meanwhile, the team owner Dr. Sanjiv Goenka has said that the franchise had received an overwhelming response and the most popular name that came out was ‘Lucknow Super Giants’.

“We conducted a poll to decide the name of the franchise. We received an overwhelming response and the most popular name that came out was Lucknow Supergiants”, Goenka said while speaking on Backstage With Boria hosted by renowned sports journalist Boria Majumdar.

The RPSG Group had previously owned the now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) for two seasons in 2016 and 2017 during when a two-year ban that was imposed on the inaugural edition’s finalists Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals for their alleged involvement in the infamous spot-fixing scandal.

The team was led by the legendary skipper MS Dhoni in the first season and Australia’s batting mainstay Steve Smith in the second and final season. While 2016 turned out to be a forgettable year for Pune as they finished at the seventh position, they had a memorable run in the 2017 edition where they made the finals before suffering an agonising defeat to Mumbai Indians in a last-ball thriller.

Coming back to the 2022 season, Lucknow Super Giants have roped in two-time World Cup winner Gautam Gambhir as their mentor and as of now have brought three players onboard including the likes of India’s limited-overs vice-captain KL Rahul, emerging leggie Ravi Bishnoi and star Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis.