Bhuvaneshwar Kumar. (Source – UP T20 League)
Lucknow Falcons roped in veteran India pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar for the second edition of the UPT20 League. The 34-year-old played for Noida Super Kings in the inaugural edition of the competition, in which he picked up 14 wickets in nine matches and finished as the fourth-leading wicket-taker of the competition. Noida eventually finished second on the points table but lost to Kashi Rudras in the first semi-final.
For Bhuvneswar, Kanpur Superstars and Gorakhpur Lions were in the race for the longest time. However, Gorakhpur had to back out as they did not have enough money to build the rest of the team. Soon after that, Lucknow Falcons joined the race and eventually bought him for a whooping fee of INR 30.25 lakhs. His former franchise Noida had the option to use the Right To Match (RTM) cards but they refused it as Lucknow got their hands on the pacer.
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Besides Bhuvneshwar, Lucknow signed Sameer Choudhary, Kritagya Kumar Singh, Viprag Nigam and Aditya Kumar Singh among others for the second edition. They also retained Priyam Garg, who captained the Indian team in the U19 World Cup in 2020. The 23-year-old never managed to show his worth in the IPL and in the 2024 edition of the competition, he wasn’t picked in the auction. The youngster would be gunning to do well in the upcoming edition of UPT20 to get more opportunities in the IPL.
Meanwhile, Lucknow recently conducted a two-day trial at the B ground of the Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Bajpai Ekana Stadium. Chief coach Amrish Gautam along with AW Zaidi (bowling coach), Umang Sharma (batting coach), Ravikant Shukla (fielding coach) and Mritunjay Tripathi (manager) were present during the trials.
Lucknow finished third in the last edition of the competition but lost to Meerut Mavericks in the semi-finals. They would be hoping to go the distance this time around and Bhuvneshwar will play an important role in achieving that. He too has a point to prove as the pacer would eye to impress the selectors as get into India’s scheme of things for the Champions Trophy.