The new IPL franchise from Lucknow on Friday (January 21) announced their picks for the 2022 season of the league ahead of the mega auction.

Notably, the 2022 edition of IPL will be a 10-team event with the addition of Lucknow and Ahmadabad franchises. With the mega auction set to take place next month in Bangalore, the two news teams were allowed to pick three players (up to two Indians and one overseas) among the pool of cricketers up for grabs.

Keeping the criteria in mind, the Lucknow-based franchise signed the trio of KL Rahul, Marcus Stoinis and Ravi Bishnoi, as announced on Star Sports.

Although IPL Governing Council has set INR 15 crore, INR 11 crore and INR 7 crore for teams to retain three players, the Sanjiv Goenka-owned franchise bought Rahul as Player 1 for a whopping INR 17 crore.

On the other hand, Stoinis, who has been roped in as Player 2, will receive INR 9.2 crore while uncapped Ravi Bishnoi will get INR 4 crore.

Notably, Rahul will also captain the Lucknow team in the upcoming IPL season. He has the experience of leading Punjab Kings in the 2020 and 2021 editions. The stylish batter was released by the Punjab franchise after he expressed his desire to change the team.

Spending a sum of INR 30.2 crore on the aforementioned players has left the Lucknow-based team with INR 59.8 crore purse for the IPL 2022 mega auction.