Played twice. Qualified Twice.
The record certainly is not bad for Lucknow Super Giants in the world’s most glamorous cricket league. It is indeed no small feat to make it to the knock-out stage on both its appearances at the IPL.
LSG’s campaign, however, ended in the Eliminator match on both the occasions. K.L. Rahul’s men will want to improve that record this season.
Rahul wasn’t there when his team qualified for the Eliminator; he had, in fact, missed the latter stage of the tournament with a leg injury. He also had to withdraw from the recent Test series against India due to injury after playing the first match at Hyderabad. With the T20 World Cup coming up, the IPL also offers an excellent chance to present his case; his last T20I was in November, 2022.
Rahul is one of the more consistent batters in T20 cricket — with an average in excess of 42 and six hundreds from 212 matches — but he has been criticised for his strike-rate, which may not be among the highest. But as long as he bats long enough, LSG may not complain.
The batting, featuring the likes of Quinton de Kock, Kyle Mayers — the West Indian was one of the pleasant surprises in his maiden season last year — Deepak Hooda and the explosive Nicholas Pooran, is strengthened further by the addition of Devdutt Padikkal. The likes of Marcus Stoinis, Ayush Badoni and Krunal Pandya ensure depth and power.
The loss of Mark Wood is a blow, but his replacement is one of the most exciting new talents in the game.
Shamar Joseph, the hero of West Indies’ sensational Test win at Brisbane recently, may have little experience in T20s, but the other new overseas pace-bowling recruit, David Willey, has plenty of it; there are, in fact, more options in the form of Naveen-ul-Haq, Shivam Mavi, Yash Thakur, Mohsin Khan and the rookie Mayank Yadav, who can work up good pace.
Ravi Bishnoi will lead the spin attack, which also contains the seasoned Amit Mishra, Krunal Pandya, K. Gowtham and the new arrival M. Siddharth.
