LSG made it 2 playoff appearances from 2 attempts in IPL 2023 and come into the 2024 tournament with one of the least changed squads from last season. Will that stability help them to progress and go one better this time around?
There certainly seems enough quality across the squad to suggest that they can be there or thereabouts come the end of the season but they'll have to overcome the difficult home conditions with the Ekana Stadium having the lowest average score in the IPL last year at just 148.
In fact, those same home conditions are important to factor in when assessing LSG's performance across key phases of the game in IPL 2023.
Run scoring, in particular, was really not easy easy in Lucknow last year whether the match was played on red soil or black soil pitches, although it was the former that provided the toughest conditions with 4 LSG totals under 130.
The LSG line-up is not particularly well suited to those kind of conditions as we'll examine in further detail below and so it was crucial that the Super Giants were strong on the road winning 5 matches on their travels and only losing away to the 2 sides who ultimately finished above them in the league (GT and CSK).
However, LSG did struggle with the ball, particularly in the powerplay where they claimed just 14 wickets. Their cause wasn't helped by an injury to Mohsin Khan who managed just 5 games last season and the form of Avesh Khan who having been one of the most effective powerplay bowlers over recent IPLs went wicketless from his 12 PP overs in 2023.
In terms of individual performances, Avesh Khan wasn't the only Super Giant to struggle last year. Deepak Hooda suffered a nightmare season scoring 84 runs at an average of 7.63 and strike rate of 94 in the 12 matches he played.
The top order chopped and changed quite a lot, firstly due to QdK arriving late alongside most of his South African colleagues. That gave Kyle Mayers an opportunity to open and he looked very good in the early stages of the tournament. Then an injury to KL Rahul plus the lack of runs from Hooda prompted another rethink of the top order and LSG's batting unit never really hit its full potential.
With ball in hand, Ravi Bisnoi lead the wicket taking stakes with 16 victims across the season and LSG shuffled a very long list of bowling options to good effective helped by the fact that they continued to have plenty of all round options in Krunal Pandya, Stoinis and Gowtham.
Young Yash Thakur was the stand out seam bowler finishing with 13 wickets. He was particularly effective at the death where he claimed 8 of those dismissals at an economy of under 10 runs an over.
Given that LSG had the smallest available pursue coming into the auction, it was always likely to be a case of them flirting around the edges rather than going in for the big names.
Having traded Avesh Khan to Rajasthan in the off-season, an Indian seam bowler was a priority and LSG picked up Shivam Mavi to fill that role. With 6 fairly recent caps for India in T20 cricket, Mavi is a bowler who has failed to really live-up to expectations in the IPL since he debuted as a teenager in 2018. He didn't feature at all for a strong GT side last season and so perhaps has a point to prove at a new franchise where opportunities look more likely to be afforded to him.
Coming the other way from the Royals was Devdutt Padikkal who struggled in his middle order role at Rajasthan but is likely to have to bat in a similar position in this LSG team as well.
Elsewhere, LSG picked up David Willey who could prove a shrewd signing given his ability to pick-up wickets in the powerplay not to mention that he adds yet another batting option to their long list of all-rounders.
LSG also brought in Ashton Turner who hasn't played in the IPL since 2019 when he suffered an infamous string of ducks (3 in the IPL, 5 in total across all T20 matches). He is likely to provide back up to Marcus Stoinis.
Career T20 records v types of bowling and in phases of the game
The key words that could be used to describe most areas of the LSG squad for IPL 2024 are "options" and "depth".
An opening combination of KL Rahil and QdK is one of the strongest in the league and in Mayers and Padikkal LSG do have better alternatives than many sides can muster in that position.
Number 3 was a big problem for LSG last season and an area they'll defintely want to improve on. Hooda does at least come into IPL 2024 with a bit of form including scoring a magnificent 180 off 128 balls for the Rajasthan side that he captained in the Vijay Hazare Trophy this year.
Devdutt Padikkal has been in similarly good form in domestic cricket earning him a call up to the India A squad and no doubt he's been in conversations about making his Test debut against England (he may yet get that chance in the final match of the series). It could be that LSG go with him and Hooda at 3 and 4, rotating them to maintain a left/right hand combination at the crease.
LSG can then call on their powerful middle order of Stoinis, Pooran and Badoni to get the runs flowing. While they'll also have players like Krunal Pandya, Willey and Gowtham floating around at numbers 8 and 9 providing hitting power throughout the 20 overs.
It is however essential to LSG's success in IPL 2024 that they don't leave too much for that middle and lower order to do especially in the challenging home conditions. While their powerplay performance from last year can be excused to some extent due to the conditions at the Ekana Stadium, the career strike rates of several of their top order players in that phase of the game need to be improved upon to avoid LSG having to chase the game later on particularly where conditions make that very challenging.
Career T20 bowling stats by phase of the game
In bowling terms, it looks most likely that LSG will pick between 1 of their 3 overseas seamers to feature in the XI. All 3 provide something slightly different with David Willey an excellent exponent of swing compared to Naveen-ul-Haq who will look to bowl his variations off the pitch and yorkers later on.
Shamar Joseph came in to replace Mark Wood and give the side a genuine pace option and while his performances in the Test arena are certainly worthy of attention his lack of experience at any level in T20 cricket is a concern.
LSG will be desperate to get Mohsin Khan fit and firing for IPL 2024. When he's on the pitch he is a proven wicket taker across all phases but it's difficult to imagine that a player with his injury record will be able to play every game.
That means that Shivam Mavi and Yash Thakur will need to perform alongside and at times in the absence of Mohsin. Both have the potential to be effective players for LSG particularly through the middle and death over phases of the match.
Finally, LSG continue to have plenty of depth in their spin bowling department. You'd expect Bisnoi and Krunal Pandya to be first choice picks again in IPL 2024 and while they do an excellent job of controlling the scoring during the middle overs, they aren't the prolific wicket takers that some other franchises can call upon.
Amit Mishra rolled back the years and did look an effective weapon particularly in home games for LSG last season. He offers a more classical and aggressive wrist-spin option to play alongside Bishnoi and Pandya while the selection of Gowtham would mean that they have all bases covered and allow KL Rahul to exploit potential match-ups against opposition batsmen.
LSG have a settled squad with no major weaknesses present. Every player knows their role and if they can execute that role then there's no reason to think that they won't make it to a 3rd consecutive knockout phase.
What happens after that is anyone's guess!
If there is one weakness that has developed over the franchise's relatively short existence it's been winning the matches that really matter.
They lost twice to Gujarat Titans last year and were well on their way to being beaten home and away by CSK as well before rain intervened to spare their blushes. They were then thrashed by Mumbai Indians in the eliminator and that does mean that beyond the often impressive stats their players can boost across the T20 format, we do have consider that there is a psychological weakness for this squad to overcome before they can be considered potential title challengers.
All stats used in this blog are from my own database which is freely accessible at T20 head to head. Images are my own with the exception of player profiles and background images which are used under a creative commons license or otherwise royalty free
