Former Indian national cricket team all-rounder Irfan Pathan has shared his verdict on star batsman Devdutt Padikkal’s trade to Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024.

Padikkal, one of the most exciting talents in Indian cricket, was traded to Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) by Rajasthan Royals (RR) in exchange for pacer Avesh Khan. The 23-year-old left-handed batsman has been in top form in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy and will hope to carry the same momentum ahead of next year’s Indian Premier League (IPL).

Recently, during an interaction on Star Sports, Irfan Pathan spoke about the Lucknow Super Giants and said that the scouts would have worked hard to find domestic talent as they have released quite a few players.

“Actually, their scouts will do a lot of work because they have eliminated many domestic players. That is why national parties become very important. Therefore, they must have identified the players they want to recruit in the domestic matches,” Pathan said.

LSG released Jaydev Unadkat, Daniel Sams, Manan Vohra, Swapnil Singh, Karan Sharma, Arpit Guleria, Suryansh Shedge and Karun Nair ahead of the IPL 2024 auction.

I think Devdutt Padikkal’s move is fantastic – Irfan Pathan

Irfan Pathan further praised Lucknow Super Giants for bringing in Devdutt Padikkal in a trade deal with Rajasthan Royals.

“Other than that, everything is pretty neat. I think Devdutt Padikkal’s move is fantastic. So what they need to do is get good domestic cricketers as backups, not frontline XI players,” Pathan added.

Padikkal, who scored 1521 runs in the Indian Premier League (IPL), scored five consecutive 50-overs in VHT 2023. If he manages to continue this form, there is a chance that he will be given the top-tier job. for the LSG franchise in IPL 2024.

Players retained by LSG:

KL Rahul, Quinton de Kock, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Deepak Hooda, K Gowtham, Krunal Pandya, Kyle Mayers, Marcus Stoinis, Prerak Mankad, Yudhvir Singh, Mark Wood, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, Ravi Bishnoi, Yash Thakur, Amit Mishra, Naveen-ul-Haq.