Lucknow Super Giants lay down a marker as Quinton de Kock and Jason Holder join

Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya and Mark Wood complete a decent batch of recruits ahead of their inaugural campaign in the IPL

Lucknow Super Giants signalled their intentions ahead of their inaugural IPL campaign with the addition of Quinton de Kock in the mega auction.

The two-time champion with Mumbai Indians went for a snip at 6.75 crore (£593,926) and is now set to open the batting alongside captain KL Rahul.

An experienced figure in Manish Pandey was swept up for 4.6 crore (£396,928) before the in-form Jason Holder, player of the series in the recent England T20s, sparked a massive mass bidding war.

And Lucknow prevailed with a final offer of 8.75 crore (789,457) after interest from Mumbai and Rajasthan Royals.

A late move for Deepak Hooda proved fruitful after they pipped Sunrisers Hyderabad to the post.

Hooda will be more than familiar with Krunal Pandya, released by Mumbai after six seasons with the franchise, who arrives for 8.25 crore (£784,569).

^{Avesh Khan was a member of India's Under-19 World Cup squad in 2016 (Getty Images)}

After failing to bring in Josh Hazlewood they ensured an express pace bowler was added to their roster in the form of Mark Wood for 7.5 crore (£689,248).

Though it was largely a quiet end to the auction for the Super Giants they still had time to complete one of the standout deals, adding Avesh Khan for 10 crore (£977,656) and making him the most expensive uncapped player in history.

Ankit Rajpoot (50 lakhs, £48,882) concluded their business.

On what can be overall considered a good day, Nitish Rana, Washington Sundar and Prasidh Krishna were among the near-misses.

Owner Sanjiv Goenka said: “Quinton was very high on our list, so was Jason, so was Deepak [Hooda]. So these were three of our very important picks.

“Manish is a very reliable Indian batsman.

“We’ve got our choices, we’ve got them at prices slightly less than we had budgeted for, so so far it’s been good.”

Lucknow Super Giants

Quinton de Kock, Manish Pandey, Jason Holder, Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya, Mark Wood, Avesh Khan, Ankit Rajpoot