LSG’s season should have been so much more than what it was

After making it to the playoffs in each of their first two seasons in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Lucknow Super Giants, heading into IPL 2024, were once again primed to be in contention for the title. Big things were expected from the franchise, particularly after they roped in the trio of Justin Langer (head coach), Lance Klusener (assistant coach) and Adam Voges (consultant).

However, a season in which they were expected to take giant strides ended up turning into their worst ever, yet, with the franchise failing to make it to the top five. 

The disappointment in IPL 2024, in a way, sums up LSG’s entire 2022-2024 cycle. It could and should have been so much more, but it wasn’t. 

The Good

Nicholas Pooran’s outrageous season

LSG signing Nicholas Pooran for INR 16 crore in the IPL 2023 auction is, with every passing day, looking like one of the best gambles in the tournament’s history. The left-hander, for the Super Giants, has now scored a whopping 857 runs at an average of 42.85 and strike rate of 176.00. 499 of these runs came in IPL 2024 at a scarcely believable average of 62.38 and strike rate of 178.21.

Pooran, in IPL 2024, faced 15+ balls in nine innings and turned every single one of these knocks into 30+ scores. What’s more, six of these knocks came at a strike rate over 190.00, with LSG winning five of the aforementioned games. 

We’re used to seeing cameos from Pooran but, this season, he went a step further and played a handful of AB De Villiers-esque knocks. 

This was, by some distance, Pooran’s best ever season in the IPL yet. It’s a shame that LSG weren’t able to use it to propel the side to greater heights. 

Emergence of Mayank Yadav

LSG’s season might not have gone the way they envisioned it, but IPL 2024 saw them unearth a potential generational talent in Mayank Yadav. The 21-year-old Delhi speedster made his debut in LSG’s second game of the season against Punjab Kings and took the world by storm in his first game itself, clocking 156 kph on the speed gun and pretty much single-handedly bowling his side to victory. 

He then backed up this showing with an even more electrifying performance against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), where he registered figures of 4-0-14-3 and brought the Chinnaswamy to a standstill. 

To LSG’s dismay, a side strain meant that Mayank only played two more games for the rest of the season. The 21-year-old’s injury robbed the cricket world of some electrifying pace and, more importantly, hamstrung the Super Giants.

But still, the 73 hostile rockets Mayank bowled in IPL 2024 was enough to make him the talk of the tournament. The word going around is that the BCCI are seriously considering the possibility of offering the youngster a developmental contract in order to groom him for the future.

The Bad

New season, same old KL Rahul

Contrary to rumours that he might play in the middle-order, KL Rahul began IPL 2024 as an opener, pretty much denting his chances of making it to the T20WC squad. 

But in the first half of the season, Rahul batted like a changed man. Or, rather, like his old self. He took on the bowlers against the new ball and showed plenty of intent in the powerplay. 

In the first seven games of the season, he struck at 154.1 in the powerplay and 143.5 in his first 10 balls — both the highest for him in a season since 2018. This approach inspired hope.

However, those seven games turned out to be a false dawn as Rahul returned to his slow ways in the second half of the season: he struck at 98.4 in his first 10 balls, 111.9 in the powerplay and 128.6 overall. His 29 (33) against SRH, 25 (21) against KKR and 55 (41) against MI all either directly contributed to LSG’s loss or put his teammates in a really precarious position. 

That’s five different seasons, three different coaches and two different franchises that Rahul has played in, under and for since 2020. Yet his methods have remained the same —  outdated. 

Experienced players — Indian and overseas —  not stepping up

LSG would look back on IPL 2024 and feel that they would have made it to the playoffs even if one of their experienced players had helped them win one extra match. 

We already spoke about Rahul but, with the bat, Quinton de Kock and Marcus Stoinis had a poor season. At least Stoinis stepped up in a couple of games but de Kock truly had a shocker of a season, scoring 250 runs at an average of 22.72 and strike rate of 134.40 before getting dropped. 

The problem with Indian middle-order batters continued as neither Deepak Hooda nor Ayush Badoni were able to consistently impact matches with the bat.

With the ball, meanwhile, Ravi Bishnoi, who now has played five IPL seasons, had his worst ever season, taking just 10 wickets at an economy of 8.77. Bishnoi added no x-factor to the bowling department, taking 2+ wickets in an innings only twice in the season. In half the games, he leaked runs at an E.R over 9.3. 

The Ugly

The disastrous Padikkal-Avesh trade

Prior to the season, the Super Giants traded one of their premier Indian seamers, Avesh Khan, for Devdutt Padikkal, who struggled to get going in Rajasthan Royals’ colours. 

LSG had envisioned Padikkal bringing solidity to the side at No.3, proving to be a run-bank for the side.

But the trade truly couldn’t have gone any worse for the Rahul-led side. Padikkal ended up having the second-worst season for any batter in IPL history, averaging 5.43. He played only half the games and found himself constantly in and out of the side. 

Meanwhile, trading out Avesh also didn’t go well as all their Indian seamers barring Mayank Yadav — who only played four matches —  leaked runs at an E.R over 10.0 while averaging over 35.0. 

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