Head coach of the Lucknow Super Giants, Justin Langer, is optimistic that skipper KL Rahul will be fit for the team’s opening IPL 2024 match against the Rajasthan Royals on Sunday, March 24. Rahul missed the final four Tests of the recently finished Test series against England due to a recurrence of a quadriceps strain and flew to London to see a specialist.

“Unfortunately, KL has experienced a hold-up on the aircraft. He was expected to be here this afternoon to participate in the practice game tonight,” Langer stated on Wednesday, March 20. “He’ll be at the ground later tonight, so he’ll most likely arrive soon after the start of the day’s play.

“He’ll be here for the first time, to be with the lads and the squad. Everyone is looking forward to meeting him. We know he worked hard to complete all of his return-to-play requirements. He’s worked hard. He’s been practicing and hitting a lot of balls. He is hopefully ready to travel. It’ll be good to have the captain among us.”

Rahul, who won the Orange Cap in 2020, has an important season ahead of him, with a probable position in the T20 World Cup team at the conclusion. While a spot at the top of India’s T20I batting order may be out of reach with Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, and Ruturaj Gaikwad currently ahead of him, Rahul could make a case for himself as a middle-order keeper-bat, a role he excelled in during his breakout 2016 IPL season with Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Such a move would not deprive LSG of trade acquisitions, since Rahul’s Karnataka colleague Devdutt Padikkal could slot in as an opener.

Langer kept LSG’s batting order intentions under wraps, but the coach did say Rahul’s World Cup hopes would improve if the club had a successful season. “My belief, which I’ve had for about 25 years, is that if the team succeeds, everyone benefits. As a result, from KL’s perspective, if he leads the Lucknow Super Giants to an IPL title, it means he would have played well, led well, and maintained wickets well.

“If our team succeeds, everyone will be rewarded. That will be the message for all players, including Bishi [Ravi Bishnoi] and KL, as well as a few others who will compete for T20 World Cup slots. It’s all part of the game we play. The more they focus on playing well for Lucknow, the better their chances of being picked.

“It’s a sweet problem, but we’ll figure it out.” It’s great to have so much skill on our roster.”

In addition, the new IPL coach believed that the Ekana Stadium’s wickets would be more favorable for batting than the previous year when just three of the seven games played there resulted in scores above 170.

“We’ve worked a lot on the pitches. I’ve been all over it. They modified the water used in the pitches. They have also modified parts of the soil. They modified the soil on the pitches after last season, which resulted in some good World Cup outcomes. They played several games here. There were several high-scoring contests. I believe the game between South Africa and Australia was fairly high-scoring, correct?

“We’ve trained here. We played a practice game under lights last night, and we’ve had two nice training sessions on the middle wickets. The pitches were wonderful… they recognized that we needed to enhance the pitches from last year, so we’re all quite hopeful that we’ll see excellent pitches. However, based on what I’ve seen thus far, we have nothing to be concerned about.