‘We were about to win IPL finals but…’ Sanjiv Goenka reveals reason behind appointing Zaheer Khan as LSG mentor

Sanjiv Goenka the owner of Lucknow Super Giants decided to appoint former Indian star Zaheer Khan as the new mentor. The former Indian pace legend will hope to use his expertise and make Lucknow Super Giants the IPL winners. 

During his appearance on Sports Tak, the Lucknow Super Giants owner Sanjiv Goenka gave the example of Gautam Gambhir. The current Indian coach left Lucknow to become the mentor of Kolkata Knight Riders and helped them win the IPL earlier this year. 

“Last year, I felt that an Indian mind, you can call him a mentor or anything, who has that fierce desire to win, was lacking a bit. Zaheer, even when he was a player, he was very determined to win. That was his only aim. I want that” said the Lucknow owner to Sports Tak. 

Sanjiv Goenka speaks on famous heated moment with KL Rahul 

After a humiliating loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad inside ten overs, skipper KL Rahul was seen having a chat with Sanjiv Goenka. The Lucknow owner was evidently in a angry mood as he was seen making a point to the skipper. 

When asked about the incident on Sports Tak, KL Rahul said “I am not satisfied if someone comes and tells me we played badly today. Then, repeats the same thing the next two days. So I will ask him, ‘why?’ One player can be off-form, but XI players cannot be off-form every day.”

According to Sajiv Goenka this is where a name like Zaheer Khan comes into play. he decision-making role that Zaheer can play. The role that Gautam played was lacking last season. So my expectation from Zaheer is to work on that decision-making,"

Finally during his chat with the channel, Sanjiv Goenka dug into the archives. The RPG group had held the ownership of the short lived Rising Pune Supergiants team that had reached the finals of IPL 2017. The team under Steve Smith lost to Mumbai Indians by 1 run after having a great season. 

Then LSG boss said “The Super Giants family has been in the IPL for five years. Two of those were with Pune, and three were with Lucknow. When we reached the finals with Pune, it was a new and inexperienced team. You leave out Steve Smith and MS Dhoni, we didn't have much experience in the team”

“We were about to win the final, but due to our lack of experience, we lost. So making the right calls in those crunch moments is key." Sanjiv Goenka ended by saying about his previous stint in the league to Sports Tak.