SWOT analysis of Lucknow Super Giants for IPL 2025

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) took a big decision when they introduced two brand new teams ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2022) season namely the Gujarat Titans (GT) and Lucknow Super Giants. Incidentally, the Gujarat Titans went on to lift their maiden IPL title in 2022 itself under the captaincy of Hardik Pandya and finished as the runners-up in the IPL 2023 season while the Lucknow Super Giants qualified for the playoffs during their first two editions of the T20 tournament. However, things did not end up on a positive note for the Lucknow Super Giants in the previous season of the IPL as they failed to make it to the playoffs for the first time. LSG will be taking on the Delhi Capitals (DC) in their first game of IPL 2025 scheduled to be hosted at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on 24 March, 2025. 

Strength: Most explosive middle-order of IPL 2025

The Lucknow Super Giants have surely done a lot of hardwork during the IPL 2025 mega auction where they picked their skipper Rishabh Pant for a massive price of INR 27 Crore and also bought South Africa's swashbuckling batter David Miller. LSG's middle-order for the upcoming edition of the cash-rich premier league includes three of the most explosive batters in the shorter format of the game like Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant and David Miller which is also their biggest strength. All of these three batters alongside the young Ayush Badoni add a lot of firepower to their middle-order and have the ability to destroy even the best of bowling attacks. 

Weakness: Injury halt in the pace bowling attack

Lucknow Super Giants have suffered a significant blow just before the start of Indian Premier League 2025 season as their premier speedster Mayank Yadav is reportedly not available for the first half of the T20 tournament as he is still recovering from an injury. LSG made a really bold call when they decided to retain the young Indian fast bowler at a whopping price of INR 11 Crore ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction. On the other hand, the pace duo of Avesh Khan and Mohsin Khan are also recovering from their respective injury issues and are awaiting a clearance from the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. 

There is still no clear update regarding the extent of Mohsin's injury while Avesh is still recovering from a knee cartilage injury. It has been learnt that Avesh has been undergoing rehabilitation since his last appearance in the Ranji Trophy in January earlier this year. The Lucknow Super Giants have also roped in another young Indian fast bowler, Akash Deep, who contributed with some impressive performances for the national side in the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. LSG have the option of one of more youngster Arshin Kulkarni who bowls left-arm pace and can smack some big hits with the bat lower down the order. However, the inexperience in the pace bowling attack is a big setback for the Lucknow Super Giants in IPL 2025. 

Opportunity: Spinners like Bishnoi and Shahbaz have a point to prove

Right-arm legspinner Ravi Bishnoi has emerged as a superb wicket-taking prospect for the Lucknow Super Giants in the last three editions of the IPL. Therefore, the LSG team management showed a lot of faith in him and retained him for an amount worth INR 11 Crore ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction. However, the leggie yet to secure his place in the Indian T20I team and the upcoming T20 season presents Bishnoi with a great opportunity to solidify his position in the national side and also do well for the Lucknow Super Giants. They have also picked left-arm spin bowling all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed who has played a total of 55 IPL matches so far having picked up as many as 21 wickets and also score 536 runs at a strike-rate of 121.82. These two will be the mainstay spin options for LSG in IPL 2025. 

Threat: Lack of specialist openers

While looking at the LSG IPL 2025 squad, they are very much likely to open the batting with the overseas duo of Mitchell Marsh and Aiden Markram. Both these experienced cricketers have definitely opened the batting for both their national team and in the various T20 leagues, however, they cannot counted be as specialist openers. LSG have also picked South Africa's young opening batter Matthew Breetzke who recently smashed an incredible century in the tri-series encounter. The pair of Marsh and Markram are expected to start as the openers in the LSG playing XI for IPL 2025.