IPL 2024: Lucknow Super Giants Trade Avesh Khan For Rajasthan Royals' Devdutt Padikkal Ahead Of Auction

Ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 Auction, Gujarat Super Giants (LSG) traded fast bowler Avesh Khan to Rajasthan Royals to acquire the services of opening batter Devdutt Padikkal for the next edition of the league. The Indian Premier League said the both players will join the new teams on their existing fees. 

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Lucknow bought Avesh for Rs 10 crore in last year's mega auction and was retained by the franchise for this year. After his paltry performance in the 2023 season including just eight wickets at an average of 35.37 and economy touching 10 per over made the side part ways with the pacer.

Rajasthan Royals will be Avesh's third IPL franchise after making his debut with Delhi Capitals in 2021 and spending two seasons with Lucknow Super Giants.

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This is Lucknow's second trade ahead of the IPL 2024 auction after trading Romario Shepherd to Mumbai Indians earlier in November.

Welcoming the pacer to the franchise, Royals' Director of Cricket, Kumar Sangakkara said, "Avesh has proved his mettle in recent years to be one of the top Indian pacers in the country. He has the ability to both swing and seam the ball, and is an effective asset at both the start of the innings and towards the end. He has a lot of variations in his armour which will be extremely valuable in the different conditions that we play in across the country. He will prove to be a valuable addition to our pace bowling department and we are looking forward to having him contribute to the team's successes."

Thanking Devdutt Padikkal for his services to the franchise, Sangakkara added, "We all admire Dev (Devdutt Padikkal) immensely for the commitment and passion he's shown over the past two seasons with us, and for the significant contribution he's made to the franchise. His energy is loved all round the team and we will certainly miss having him around the group. It was a very difficult decision to let him go given the immense talent and potential that he has, and all of us at the Royals would like to thank him for his services to the franchise. We wish him the very best for this next chapter, and hope for him to always continue to shine."

On the other hand, Padikkal failed to impress with the bat for Rajasthan Royals and was only able to accumulate 637 runs in 28 matches across two seasons for the franchise. His debut stint with the Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2020 saw him scoring 405 runs in 15 matches including one century and a fifty.

In his IPL career so far, Padikkal has played and scored 2,768 runs at 33.34 with 17 fifties and a sole hundred.

Lucknow Super Giants finished the 2023 season at third spot while Rajasthan Royals missed out on the playoffs after finishing fifth in the table.