Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) suffered their seventh defeat in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) when Mumbai Indians (MI) defeated them by six wickets at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday, May 4.
LSG's batting after continuous disappointing performance Ayush Badoni Was dropped from the team for Monday's clash. However, it didn't make much of a difference as his replacement Akshat Raghuvanshi scored just 11 runs off seven balls in his IPL debut.
Badoni has been able to score only 172 runs in eight innings in IPL 2026 at an average of 21.50 and strike rate of 140.99. The right-handed batsman came under severe criticism from Kris Srikkanth, who said that he cannot clear the inner circle with the bat and has only two shots in his armoury. The cricketer-turned-expert also shared his views on Lucknow's disappointing campaign in this year's IPL.
Srikkanth said on Star Sports, “Ayush Badoni can't even hit above the inner circle. With only two shots, he has been playing for you for five years. If you ask him, they will point to his average and other numbers, which is the biggest mistake everyone makes. To make up for such miserable performances, he has many famous names in his coaching staff.”
He said, “There is no scope for progress in this team. Their captain and the entire team is clueless. They have a good bowling lineup but everything else is disappointing. They got Ayush Badoni to open. They brought out-of-form Rinku Singh back to form at 88/6. How bad has been the captaincy of his team and Pant.”
Rishabh Pant's own performance has been affected by captaincy: Sadagoppan Ramesh
Former India opener Sadagoppan Ramesh said that Rishabh Pant is struggling with the bat as the added pressure of captaincy is weighing on him. On Monday, the wicketkeeper-batsman scored just 15 runs off 10 balls on a belter of a track.
“Rishabh Pant's own performance has been affected by captaincy in the last two years. Captains of well-performing teams are performing individually without affecting the captaincy. That alone affects wins by 30 to 40 per cent. Rishabh Pant is not able to do that. He is also making many tactical mistakes,” Ramesh said (via the above source).
He said, “Bowling to Digvesh Rathi in the 20th over and initially batting at No. 3 while changing the opening positions are all clear examples. Someone like Pooran should have been tried at No. 3 much earlier. Neither is he clear about what he needs to do to perform nor does he know how to get the best out of others. His overall thinking needs to improve a lot.”
Get every cricket update! Follow us: :
Leave a Reply