CHENNAI: Falling short of the expected total, one of their star players misfiring, constant changing in the batting order... It has been the story of the season so far with Lucknow Super Giants. As their chances of qualifying to the play-offs are all but over, this season would be another write-off for Rishabh Pant’s men.
And Sunday’s five wicket defeat to the Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium yet again showed their persistent batting woes. Apart from Josh Inglis (85off 33) and Shahbaz Ahmed (43 off 25 n.o), rest of the batters faltered. Skipper Pant, who was bought for `27.5 crore, has yet another season to forget.
LSG’s global director of cricket Tom Moody did not mince any words in explaining their pain point. “I think our batting has let us down, there's no question, particularly our middle order hasn't fired, and shown the consistency that's required to have that success on a consistent basis,” he told at the post-match press conference.
Along with the bowlers failing to maintain pressure in the middle-over phases, Moody said that the team have not been able to stitch a perfect game. Pant’s form has been a subject of debate ever since his switch at the mega auction in 2024. With Pant in most matches taking the number three spot – which was previously held by Nicholas Pooran — he has not seen success there so far.
While he might have scored his season best of an unbeaten 68 (vs SRH) from number three he has not been able to meet the demands the role needed like Pooran did. He has also opened in two games but has seen little to no success. It is at number four where he has impacted the match, with his brief yet explosive knocks. “Rishabh was keen to bat at number three this year, so we afforded him that opportunity, the first game he opened, that was purely a match-up, Axar Patel, of Delhi Capitals, we felt getting a left-hander early to derail their strategy around what they're looking to do in the power play, and he got out, unfortunately in an unfortunate fashion, so he missed that opportunity for that match-up,” Moody said.
With Pooran, Moody said that they had to manage his wrist injury. In the 14 games he played last year, he scored 524 runs at a strike rate of 196.25. "Nicky P came into the tournament with a sore wrist that needed some sort of management in the first week or two, and generally around the world in T20 cricket, Nicky P bats anywhere from 3 to 5, and he's been effective in all those roles, so I think for him, his season started slowly more to do with his preparation, and also the fact that he came in with a bit of a wrist injury, so we've managed that, he's fine now, as we've seen over recent games,” Moody said.
Injuries have affected balance
With injuries and mid-way inclusions of players, Moody said that has deterred their team composition. An injury to Lucknow’s Sri Lankan spinner Wanindu Hasaranga, and Josh Inglis’s entry into the squad midway through the season were some of the things Moody put light on. “Josh Inglis, we knew was going to be missed, We saw today that he was too important a player not to be picked up at the auction, regardless of his availability this year, due to his wedding. Hasaranga is more of a significant miss because he was a really important piece to the puzzle of how we were trying to stack up as a side, having that point of difference with a mystery-type spinner, that's got a great international record, and he just offers that little bit of depth and security at number eight, as someone that's more than capable of playing a role there. So we've been battling with that balance ever since, and what hasn't helped is obviously our top order and our batting hasn't fired, so we were exposed down at the back end of the innings,” Moody explained.
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