Following a six-wicket defeat to Sunrisers Hyderabad, Lucknow Super Giants are out of the IPL 2025 playoffs race. Their middle order has disappointed in the ongoing season, while the bowling looked lacklustre amid multiple injury concerns. Interestingly, they signed only one overseas foreign pacer in Shamar Joseph in the auction and backed the Indian bowlers to get the job done.
However, their bowling unit flopped. They needed someone to step up and stay consistent throughout the season, but that didn’t happen. Analysing the situation, former cricketer Tom Moody stated that the franchise spent too much in signing Rishabh Pant and retaining Nicholas Pooran, that they didn’t have enough money to on board a quality bowler.
He mentioned that LSG didn’t plan well as far as the bowling unit is concerned and even though the batting department looks strong, it’s the bowlers that play a key part in the shortest format of the game.
“The expense on Rishabh Pant and Nicholas Pooran, those two players, makes it very hard to build a very strong bowling unit. Because you just don't have the funds to compete at the auction table. In an ideal world, it's great to have Pooran, [David] Miller, [Mitchell] Marsh, Pant... all these are impactful batters but at the end of the day you need to bowl. You've got to be able to have an impactful bowling unit in powerplays,” Moody told ESPNcricinfo.
“Be adaptable in the middle overs and take wicket and squeeze the opposition. And in the back-end of the innings, you need people to close the game under pressure - take wickets, bowl those really challenging overs when the opposition is going hell-for-leather against you. And I just don't think they've got any of that,” he added.
After the league was suspended for little over a week, LSG signed Will O’Rourke and he looked decent against SRH, picking up one wicket for 31 runs in 2.2 overs.