It's not only Kolkata Knight Riders owners, their supporters and the management that place Gautam Gambhir at a high altar. The story is pretty much the same, even with Lucknow Super Giants. Gambhir was the mentor of the side in its first two seasons in the IPL, and LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka revealed that the former India opener built everything from scratch.

LSG was one of the two new franchises - the other being Gujarat Titans - that entered the IPL ahead of the 2022 season. They were offered three draft picks to level things up a bit but unlike the other eight franchises who have been a part of the league since its inception, they didn't have a proper structure in place.

Goenka said it was Gambhir who did everything, as they did not have an analyst or a research and scout team before the auctions.

"Gautam has played a significant role in building the side's foundation. If you consider our first auction successful, it is only because of Gautam. We got the franchise barely two weeks before the auctions. We did not have an analyst or a research team. It was all Gautam Gambhir's team. He did everything and put together a very balanced team. Everyone has specific roles and Gautam played his part exceptionally well," Goenka said in an interview with Sports Tak.

The two seasons that Gambir was a part of the franchise, LSG reached the playoffs without much difficulty but when he moved to KKR ahead of IPL 2024, things went south for the Lucknow-based franchise. LSG finished seventh on the points table and the feud between captain KL Rahul and owner Goenka became a huge topic of discussion. So much that there were reports of LSG not retaining Rahul ahead of the mega auctions for next year's IPL.

There has been no clarity on that yet. Goenka did refer to Rahul as "family" and an integral part of the LSG setup but chose to keep the cards close to his chest as far as retention for next season is concerned.

LSG appoint Zaheer Khan as mentor

But the RPSG primo-supremo, however, has made the first significant move towards getting their campaign back on track by appointing Zaheer Khan as the franchise's mentor.

"LSG are a relatively young franchise in IPL, but it has not been looked upon like that, the building blocks are pretty much in place," Zaheer said at the media interaction at the RPSG Group Headquarters in Kolkata.

"They have made a lot of progress. The consistency with reaching playoffs, which is so tough in this fiercely-contested competition, is something that gives me a lot of confidence when I'm looking at coming and contributing to the franchise's success."

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