Will Rishabh Pant show the way for Lucknow Super Giants | SWOT & more

The name of the franchise team is Lucknow Super Giants (LSG),   but it's still in its fledgling years in the IPL. LSG was one of the two teams the Board of Control for  Cricket in India (BCCI) admitted into the league in 2021 and starting the competition from 2022 - just like Gujarat Titans.

While for the Titans it was like walking into serendipity winning the title on debut and reaching the final in 2023, LSG which cost its owner the RP Sanjeev Gupta Group around Rs.7090 crore, was not as lucky, but it reached the playoffs in its first two seasons. Last year it did not go beyond the league stage after winning five of the first nine matches.

After three seasons the franchise made the big splash bidding for Rishabh Pant and getting him on board for Rs. 27 crore at the player auction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Thus the flamboyant wicketkeeper-batter became the most expensive player in the IPL history,  surpassing Punjab Kings shelling out Rs.26.75 crore for Shreyas Iyer at the same  auction. 

The Delhi Capitals had the option to deploy the Right to Match (RTM) card to get Pant back in its fold, but the franchise did not use it. LSG owner Sanjeev Goenka believed that the price was high at Rs.27 crore, but his team had planned to dissuade the Capitals from using the RTM card.

The Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Sunrisers Hyderabad also entered the bidding war, and at Rs.20.75 crore the Capitals mulled over using the RTM card, but the Lucknow franchise upped the sum to Rs.27 crore. And that’s that; Pant became the LSG brand. 

Why did Lucknow go all out for Pant? Clearly it was looking at a big star having parted ways with K.L.Rahul. Pant had missed the 2023 season because he was in the rehabilitation phase having met with a serious car crash. He had played 111 IPL matches, scored  3284 runs at a scoring rate of 8.34  He was a consistent run getter from his second season in 2017, touching a high of 684 in 2018 and crossing 400 plus and 300 plus aggregates three times each.

Pant had built a reputation as a game changer amassing runs at batting order 3 to 5,  hitting 450 boundary shots (296 x4s and 154 x 6s) - all for the Delhi Capitals starting from 2016.  There are reports that he chose to part ways with Delhi after the choice of the new head coach was known. 

Thereafter Pant was named the captain of the side. Like Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Pant had  gained popularity with his carefree and fearless ways of going after the bowlers. Lucknow saw the potential in him to develop his brand and also take the LSG brand forward.

The Lucknow team prospered on the back of Rahul, Quinton de Kock,  Deepak Hooda,.Australian Marcus Stoinis and West Indian Nicholas Pooran's power packed batting displays and Ravi Bishnoi's leg spin and the limited ability ofa few fast and seam bowlers. The team lost the express fast bowler Mayank Yadav - to a back injury - after he had played four matches last year and grabbed national attention. 

After retaining the following players Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan and Yadav, Lucknow zeroed in on Pant at the auction and bought batters like Aiden Markram, David Miller, allrounder Mitchell Marsh among the known ones and a number of home talent.

The Lucknow batting will revolve around such fantastic stroke players and hitters like Pant, Pooran, Marsh, Markram and Miller, but the skipper will have to deal.with the headache of choosing the four overseas players. Marsh can open and hit the deck bowling and Markram can bowl off breaks. There is another South African in wicketkeeper batter Matthew Breetzke.

There are also manyz home grown talents, apart from Badoni and spin- allrounder Shahbaz Ahmed. Its fast bowling attack has plenty to choose from in Shamar Joseph,  Avesh Khan, Akash Deep, Mohsin Khan, Yadav, among others and of course the wrist spinner Bishnoi and left-arm finger spinners in Shahbaz and  Manimaran Siddharth. The squad also budding talents, notably Maharashtra's Arshin Kulkarni. 

The team is coached by former Austrslian opener and national coach Justin Langer. While there will be some focus on him about the way he deals with team selections, the attention will be overwhelmingly on Pant. He made the big news at the auction and the franchise would like him to make bigger news during the tournament.  And of course attention will be rivetted fast bowler Mayank Yadav. If he gets going, the LSG will go a long way and upto the final.