They bought too many inconsistent or unknown players rather than going for several big options and barely spent anything on quality cricketers.
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) probably had the most underwhelming IPL 2025 auction, and their strategy was weird. They bought too many inconsistent or unknown players rather than going for several big options and barely spent anything on quality cricketers.
Consequently, they look among the weakest teams after the auction, with loopholes in several areas. The problem will start from the top since LSG don’t seem to have picked quality openers who have consistently done this role at this level.
Lucknow Super Giants have a couple of decent options to open the innings – Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh. However, both have been mighty inconsistent, with Markram not even sure to start in the strongest playing XI.
There’s also an option to open with Arshin Kulkarni and Yuvraj Chaudhary, but they don’t have enough experience to rely completely on them. The team can still open with one of them but must partner with at least one experienced option.
Unfortunately, LSG don’t have too many experienced players in the group, and those available are not suited for the opening slot. Shockingly, LSG didn’t get many options in the auction to open the innings.
Also Read: Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant Out? India’s Playing XI for SCG Test Set To Witness Big Calls
Now that LSG’s auction strategy has gone wrong, there’s no option but to find solutions from available resources. They have a way to solve this issue by taking an out-of-box decision.
LSG have spent a whopping INR 27 crore on Rishabh Pant, making him the most expensive IPL player, and they should look to maximise his strengths. The Lucknow-based franchise can slot him to open the innings rather than adopting the traditional approach of batting him in the middle order.
It will allow the team to use Mitchell Marsh at No.3, where he has vast experience and takes the game forward against the pacers. That would also mean LSG won’t have to play Aiden Markram, who has been mighty unsuccessful as a T20 player in recent times.
Several players can bat in the middle order, but only a few can be backed to do the job as an opener. Rishabh Pant is surely one of those options.
While Rishabh Pant has mostly batted in the middle order in IPL, he has previous experience of batting in the top order and opening for his teams. In fact, he used to play as an opener during his early days, including the domestic and age-group tournaments.
Overall, Pant has 644 runs at an average of 32.20 and a strike rate of 162.21 in 21 T20 innings as an opener, including five fifties and a century. Recently, he batted at No.3 for India in the T20 World Cup 2024, where he did relatively well compared to batting in the middle order.
Sometimes, he gets cramped and tries too many things in the middle order, and spinners restrict him when the field is spread. This has been a trend in his T20 batting, which was one of the reasons behind his underwhelming returns in IPL, even though he did well in patches.
While opening, he can target his stronger suit – pacers – during the field restrictions and maximise the powerplay overs. He is naturally suited to bat in the top order, and LSG can use it in their favour to shield their flawed strategy in the auction.
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