Lucknow Super Giants Team Preview: IPL 2023

Preview

The 16th Season of Indian Premier League is around the corner and fans cannot curb their excitement. You can catch our IPL 2023 Overview here. In this article, we will talk about the Lucknow Super Giants in detail.

Lucknow Super Giants had a great maiden campaign last year, which saw them making it to the Play-Offs. Like last year, their 1^st XI once again looks quite a formidable unit. The inclusion of Pooran further bolsters their middle order, while a completely fit Mark Wood will be a great addition to their already strong pace attack. They’ll be hoping everything clicks again this season, and they can go a step or 2 further ahead

Last Season Standings: With 9 wins & 5 losses, they finished 3^rd on the points tally before getting knocked out in the Eliminator

Schedule of LSG Matches

You can check the Overall IPL Schedule here.

SQUADS

BATTERS: Ayush Badoni, Manan Vohra

ALL-ROUNDERS: Marcus Stoinis, Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya, Daniel Sams, Krishnappa Gowtham, Kyle Mayers, Karan Sharma, Prerak Mankad, Swapnil Singh

BOWLERS: Avesh Khan, Mark Wood, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohsin Khan, Ravi Bishnoi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Amit Mishra, Mayank Yadav, Yash Thakur, Yudhvir Singh Charak

WKs: KL Rahul (c), Quinton de Kock, Nicholas Pooran

Changes to the Roster from last season

Major INs:

Nicholas Pooran, Daniel Sams, Romario Shepherd, Jaydev Unadkat

Major OUTs: Manish Pandey, Evin Lewis, Jason Holder

Squad News/Changes

• There are major clouds over the availability of their find of the season from last year, Mohsin Khan

Key Players

KL Rahul – Batter (Right Hand Bat)

He’s the only batter to have scored over 3k runs in the tournament since the start of 2018

His consistency in the IPL has been unparalleled ever since taking the opening slot. He’s crossed the 550+ run mark in each of the previous 5 seasons, while his last 3 seasons have all yielded over 600+ runs. It shouldn’t be long before he ends with an IPL title under his leadership. With the brilliant squad that LSG comprises of, coupled with some of the sharpest minds going across, in the form of head coach Andy Flower & mentor Gautam Gambhir, he’s got every chance of filling this void real soon

IPL Stats (2018 onwards): Inns- 69 | Runs- 3162 | Avg- 55 | SR- 139

Deepak Hooda – All Rounder (Right Hand Bat + Offspin)

Hooda has been featuring in the IPL since 2015, but last season was the 1^st time he crossed the 160 run mark in a season. It was a stellar season for him in every sense, with the overall aggregates making for a brilliant reading

Another 400+ run season at same consistency will help LSG a great deal, while he’ll also strengthen his future India chances. He’s the best fit at the No. 3 slot in this line-up, a position where he averaged over 51 with 154 runs from 4 outings last season.

IPL Stats (2022): Inns- 14 | Runs- 451 | Avg- 32 | SR- 136

Avesh Khan – Bowler (Right Arm Fast)

Avesh was LSG’s leading wicket-taker last season

Avesh’s in every way the leader of the LSG pace attack. With a fit Wood being back in the ranks, he’ll form a formidable pace duo alongside him. All he needs to work on is, being effective at the death phase, where he ended up conceding runs at an economy rate of 10.87 last season

IPL Stats (2022): Inns- 13 | Wkts- 19 | Avg- 22 | SR- 15

One to Watch Out for

Marcus Stoinis – All Rounder (Right Hand Bat + Right Arm Medium)

The constant chopping & changing with Stoinis’ batting position last season meant he couldn’t contribute to the best of his potential. The inclusion of Pooran this season means Stoinis will have a pre defined role coming in at 5/6, and could well have a major role to play throughout this season. He had a stellar run during the T20 WC last year, which saw him finish with the most runs for Australia

He also contributed decently well with the ball in Australia’s ODI series win over India last week

T20 WC (2022): Inns- 4 | Runs- 126 | Avg- 42 | SR- 161

What do you think then are LSG’s chances for this IPL Season?