Lauki Or Lockie! Kolkata Knight Riders’ Hilarious Video Welcoming NZ Star For IPL 2023

Kolkata Knight Riders are all geared up for the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League, where they will be opening their campaign against Punjab Kings on Saturday in Mohali. The two-time champions will be missing out on the services of their skipper and powerful batter Shreyas Iyer, as he is recovering from a back injury. In his absence, Delhi-based batter Nitish Rana will be leading the pack. KKR have got many names in their squad and one of them being, New Zealand ace pacer Lockie Ferguson. The Kiwi quick had earlier played for KKR between 2019-2021, before he was acquired by Gujarat Titans in 2022. However, Ferguson will be donning the purple jersey again as he was traded back to KKR before the mini auctions in December last year.

To mark his arrival in the training camp, KKR posted a hilarious video on their YouTube channel, where a man could be seen searching for vegetable lauki (bottle guard) in a local market. He finally got a huge piece of bottle guard from a vegetable seller and then a small transition in the video showed, Ferguson holding the vegetable ‘lauki’ and saying, “You’re not looking for this Lauki, you’re looking for this Lockie,” pointing at himself.

In the last season, Ferguson scalped 12 wickets in 13 matches for Gujarat Titans. Earlier in 2021, he got 13 wickets in 8 games for KKR.

In the absence of Iyer, several media reports suggested that both Rana and veteran West Indies spinner Sunil Narine were being considered for the leadership role, but the franchise confirmed their decision on social media.

Rana, who has been part of the KKR side since 2018, has led Delhi in white-ball cricket and he will be supported by senior cricketers like Andre Russell and Shakib Al Hasan.

Players bought in IPL 2023 auction-Shakib Al Hasan (Rs 1.50 crore), N. Jagadeesan (Rs 90 lakh), Vaibhav Arora (Rs 60 lakh), Suyash Sharma (Rs 20 lakh), David Wiese (Rs 1 crore), Kulwant Khejroliya (Rs 20 lakh), Litton Das (Rs 50 lakh), Mandeep Singh (Rs 50 lakh).

Players retained ahead of IPL 2023 auction -Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Tim Southee, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Anukul Roy, Rinku Singh.