Delhi: Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) has made a big change before the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026. Team owner Sanjiv Goenka has announced that former New Zealand captain Kane Williamson has been included in the franchise.

Williamson joins LSG

Kane Williamson has been made the new strategic advisor of LSG franchise.

Welcoming Williamson, Sanjiv Goenka wrote on social media platform

In the year 2025, the Lucknow team stood seventh and now the team is trying to become stronger again. Despite having many big names in the team, the last season was disappointing. Rishabh Pant, who was bought for a record ₹27 crore this season, became the biggest face of the team, but the performance was not as per expectations.

According to TOI report, Kane Williamson has been given this role in place of Zaheer Khan, who was the mentor of the team last season. Goenka has been a fan of Kane Williamson’s calm and sensible captaincy for a long time. This change reflects this thinking.

Career has been great so far

Kane Williamson is still playing international cricket, but he has left the central contract of New Zealand cricket so that he can focus on franchise cricket.

So far he has scored 9,276 runs in 105 Tests and 7,236 runs in 173 ODIs.

His batting average and patience make him one of the best batsmen in modern cricket. He was a part of Sunrisers Hyderabad for many years in IPL and took the team to the final in 2018. Later he also played for Gujarat Titans.

Now his role in LSG will not be to play on the field but to make the cricketing strategy of the team. He will decide the roadmap of the team along with head coach Justin Langer.