Mohammed Shami Sanjiv Goenka KL Rahul Rishabh Pant. Image Credits: LSG/X
Indian pacer Mohammed Shami has now shared his opinion on the on-field incident involving Lucknow Super Giants owner Sanjiv Goenka and KL Rahul during IPL 2024. Notably, KL Rahul has played for five teams in the IPL so far and has also served as captain for two of them.
KL Rahul captained Punjab Kings in the 2020 and 2021 IPL seasons. After that, he became the captain of LSG from 2022 to 2024. Even though Rahul has been one of the top batters in the IPL, he did not achieve much success as a captain.
Sanjiv Goenka publicly criticized KL Rahul
As a result, the team’s performance was often criticised. The situation became more serious after one particular match in IPL 2024 when the team suffered a heavy defeat, and Sanjiv Goenka publicly criticised KL Rahul.
The incident happened after LSG lost badly to SRH in IPL 2024. In that match, Lucknow scored 165 runs for 4 wickets, which looked like a competitive total. However, SRH chased the target in just 9.4 overs without losing a single wicket. It was a shocking defeat for Lucknow.
After the match, several videos showed team owner Sanjiv Goenka having a serious conversation with KL Rahul on the field. He looked upset and disappointed. These videos quickly went viral on social media, and many people started debating whether it was right for a team owner to criticise a captain publicly on the field.
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Mohammed Shami shares his opinion
Now, after two years, Mohammed Shami has shared his opinion on the matter during a recent podcast with Shubhankar Mishra. While talking about the incident, Shami defended Sanjiv Goenka. He said,
"l've met him a few times - around two or three times so far. He has always spoken very well, very logically, and the conversations have been around the team."
Meanwhile, he also said that Sanjiv Goenka is very protective and emotionally attached to his team, and according to him, there is nothing wrong with that.
"So if Goenka ji is that possessive about his team, there's nothing wrong with it. If he expects his players to perform and deliver their best, there's no harm in that. There have been a lot of memes and a lot of things going around that aren't right. If you take a normal person - even if they invest Rs 5000 in something, their heart skios a beat thinking their money might be lost," the pacer added.
Mohammed Shami joined LSG for IPL 2026
It is important to note that Mohammed Shami was traded to LSG from SRH ahead of the IPL 2026 auction. Earlier, he was one of the most expensive players bought by SRH before IPL 2025 for Rs 10 crore. Notably, he will join the franchise at the same price.
Mohammed Shami has a lot of experience in the IPL and has played for many teams. He made his IPL debut in 2013 for Kolkata Knight Riders, where he played three matches and took one wicket. After that, he joined Delhi Capitals and played multiple seasons for them, where he took 20 wickets in 32 matches.
Later, he joined Punjab Kings in IPL 2019 and played three seasons for them, picking up 58 wickets in 42 matches. After that, he played for Gujarat Titans in 2022 and 2023, where he performed very well and took 20 and 28 wickets respectively. He then played for SRH before moving to LSG.
Now, Mohammed Shami is set to play his first match for LSG against Delhi Capitals at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Wednesday, April 1.
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