Gautam Gambhir has said that KL Rahul has a great future as a captain after he was appointed as the captain of the new team Lucknow Supergiants for the IPL 2022. Gambhir also added that judging the captaincy of KL Rahul based on the result in the South Africa series is not the right thing.

IPL 2022 will have a brand new look to the tournament as it will have two new teams in the roster. Also, there will be a mega auction ahead of the season on February 9 and 10. Lucknow Supergiants and Ahmedabad are the two new teams and they have retained their players heading into the auction. Lucknow has roped in Gautam Gambhir as the team’s mentor. Also they have retained KL Rahul as their captain and also Marcus Stoinis and Ravi Bishnoi. 

Rahul recently captained India against South Africa in the ODI series and the team wasn’t able to win a single fixture. Many former cricketers have criticized Rahul’s captaincy after the result. However, former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir thinks that judging someone on the basis of just four matches is not the right thing to do. 

“Sometimes we start relating someone just with performances and the results. It’s too early to judge someone by just captaining 4 games,” Gambhir said to India Today.

Rahul has a prior experience of captaining Punjab Kings in the IPL for last two seasons. The team was unable to reach play-offs but he provided some great individual performances with the bat. Gambhir also commented that Rahul has a great future ahead as a leader. 

“But the most important attribute a leader should have is he doesn’t fly too high that he doesn’t go down too deep either. That is probably the best quality KL Rahul has. Always captaincy is a work in progress. You can never say, as a player or as a leader, that you have achieved everything. You want to keep improving every day. You got to be the best of yourself till the last day of your career,” he explained.

“Whatever I have seen of KL, he has a great, great future ahead not only as a batter but as a leader as well. Because that is a quality that very few people have – being calm and composed. When you start doing that, that reflects on the entire team as well.”

“When you have that kind of leader, the entire squad will benefit a lot. And I am sure he is going to do that, knowing the kind of person that he is.”

Lucknow paid Rs 17 crore for Rahul to retain while the retention price for Stoinis and Bishnoi was for Rs 9.2 Crores and Rs 4 crores respectively.