Aakash Chopra reckons Mark Wood’s potential unavailability for the entire season might have forced the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) to sign Shamar Joseph for IPL 2024.
Wood, who was originally bought for ₹7.50 crore, was one of the players retained by LSG ahead of the IPL 2024 auction. However, they recently replaced him with Joseph, who was acquired for ₹3.00 crore.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra opined that the Lucknow Super Giants might have named Joseph as an early replacement for Wood keeping their title ambitions in mind. He said:
“The Lucknow Super Giants have signed Shamar Joseph. The Lucknow franchise needs to move forward as they reached the playoffs for two consecutive seasons. Eventually, you want to finish on the podium and maybe with the trophy in hand. So for that, they have now kept Joseph.”
“It was probably expected that Mark Wood won’t be available for the entire season. However, before that itself, they decided – Mark Wood bye-bye, Shamar Joseph hi-hi. So Joseph has become a part of this team,” the former India opener added.
