LSG: A talented unit that never understood what it wanted to do

When the Lucknow Super Giants assembled their squad for IPL 2026, few, including yours truly, could have predicted they would finish where they eventually did.

The franchise entered the season with one of the strongest top orders in the competition, an experienced pace attack strengthened by Mohammed Shami, and a support staff boasting some of the most accomplished names in world cricket.

On paper, LSG looked every bit a playoff contender. Instead, they endured a season that exposed deeper issues than a simple shortage of runs or wickets. The easiest explanation would be to point towards the squad. The harder, and perhaps more accurate, explanation lies elsewhere.

LSG’s IPL 2026 campaign was not a failure of talent. It was a failure of alignment.

At the beginning of the season, batting was expected to be the franchise’s greatest strength. Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran and Rishabh Pant formed a core most teams would envy. Markram arrived in excellent form, Marsh had delivered consistently the previous year, and Pooran remained one of the most destructive T20 batters in the world. Yet the batting unit never found stability.

Five different opening combinations were tried. Mitch Marsh who came to the party bit late, opened most consistently, with a stream of oscillating partners. Markram opened. Josh Inglis opened. Ayush Badoni opened. Arshin Kulkarni opened. Batting positions shifted almost weekly. Even deep into the season there appeared to be no settled blueprint.

The issue was not experimentation. LSG never appeared certain about what they wanted to be.

Compare that with Gujarat Titans, another side heavily dependent on its top order. Gujarat recognised its strengths, accepted its limitations and built a clear structure around them. LSG, by contrast, spent much of the season trying to solve problems of their own making.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment after the batting’s failure at the top was the inability of the middle order to step up. Abdul Samad, Ayush Badoni, Himmat Singh, Mukul Choudhary and Akshat Raghuvanshi all produced occasional moments of promise, but none managed to deliver. The situation was further aggravated by Nicholas Pooran’s underwhelming season.

A player around whom much of LSG’s batting was expected to revolve, he never found sustained momentum and his misfiring left a significant void in the middle order. The result was a middle order that contributed in patches rather than shaping outcomes. Championship-winning teams are often defined by players who win games from difficult situations; LSG’s middle order, despite its talent, never evolved into that unit.

The consequence was a batting unit full of quality players who rarely looked comfortable in their roles. The responsibility inevitably fell on Rishabh Pant.

Few players entered IPL 2026 under greater scrutiny. Pant was not only captain but also the franchise’s most expensive acquisition and one of its biggest hopes. At times, he appeared burdened by competing responsibilities: leading the team, rediscovering his batting form and attempting to re-establish himself in India’s white-ball plans. The result was a season in which neither his leadership nor his batting reached the levels expected of him.

His decision to step down from captaincy may ultimately benefit both player and franchise. For Pant, it offers an opportunity to focus entirely on rediscovering the fearless batting that once made him one of India’s most exciting white-ball prospects.

For LSG, it creates an opportunity to reset leadership and redefine roles. With resources likely to come under scrutiny after a disappointing campaign, LSG could consider a bold reset by releasing Pant and seeking to re-acquire him at a lower cost, freeing up valuable funds for reinforcements in spin and middle order.

Mohammed Shami’s arrival turned out to be one of the franchise’s best decisions. Beyond his performances, he brought experience, calmness and professionalism to a young pace attack.

Prince Yadav emerged as one of the discoveries of the season, while Mohsin Khan and others contributed whenever fitness permitted. Arjun Tendulkar remains an intriguing asset for LSG.

In the lone opportunity given, he demonstrated a willingness to contribute to all three disciplines and possesses the attributes of a useful bowling all-rounder.

However, Mayank Yadav, their Rs 11-crore asset, has spent more time in rehabilitation than consistently influencing matches on the field.

Much of the credit for that improvement belongs to bowling coach Bharat Arun, whose influence was visible throughout the campaign.

Spin, however, remained a challenge. The departure of Ravi Bishnoi left a void that Digvesh Rathi was unable to fill consistently. Shahbaz Ahmed perhaps deserved a larger role, while the franchise never truly found a reliable wicket-taking option through the middle overs.

Yet even that does not fully explain the season. The more troubling question concerns identity. Five seasons into their IPL journey, what exactly does LSG stand for?

Other teams have established distinct cricketing identities. LSG still seem to be searching for theirs.

The franchise assembled an impressive support staff featuring Justin Langer, Tom Moody, Kane Williamson, Lance Klusener and Bharat Arun. Individually, these are exceptional cricket minds. Collectively, however, the season often gave the impression of a team with too many voices and insufficient alignment.

The perception, fair or otherwise, was that LSG often looked like a collection of accomplished individuals rather than a unified cricketing organisation moving in a single direction.

The same applies to the relationship between franchise and city. A big challenge is creating a stronger connection between the team and the city. LSG is still at a nascent stage in the journey of building an emotional ecosystem around their franchise.

Pitch conditions cannot be used as an explanation. LSG had ample opportunity to understand and adapt to home conditions. Professional cricketers of this calibre should not be defeated by surfaces they play on repeatedly.

For owner Sanjiv Goenka, whose passion and commitment to the franchise have never been in doubt, the offseason demands some difficult but necessary decisions, both in terms of player retention and the overall support structure, to ensure the franchise enters its next phase with greater clarity and accountability.

The ambition certainly exists. The challenge now is to create a clearer structure, a stronger identity and a more unified cricketing vision. IPL 2026 season for LSG, went down as a story of a talented team that never fully understood what it wanted to be.

And until that question is answered, the gap between potential and performance may continue to persist.

(Writer is ex-CEO, IPL Pune Warriors; ex-EC member IOC; Sr VP UPOA & Sr VP, UP Hockey)