Rishabh Pant took the bullets, but he wasn’t alone - What went wrong for LSG in IPL 2025

Imagine spending 58 per cent of your auction purse on just four players and then trying to build a balanced team with the remaining amount. That is exactly what happened with the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in IPL 2025, and it cost them heavily.

Out of their total purse of INR 120 crore ($15 million), LSG spent a whopping INR 70 ($8.31 million) crore on just four players Rishabh Pant (INR 27 crore, $3.21 million), Nicholas Pooran (INR 21 crore, $2.5 million), Ravi Bishnoi (INR 11 crore, $1.3 million), and Mayank Yadav (INR 11 crore, $1.3 million). While these players bought star value to the team, it left them with a limited purse and several gaps to fill in order to build a well-balanced squad.

Cricket is a team game and LSG failed to identify it

Rishabh Pant , the skipper of LSG, had a disappointing season with the bat, scoring a mere 135 runs in 12 innings at a below-par average of 12.35. He got out in strange ways throughout the tournament and it seemed like the pressure of the massive price tag affected his performance. Nicholas Pooran, despite being LSG's top run-getter with 455 runs in 12 outings, was not consistent enough, especially in the second half, to justify the INR 21 ($2.5 million) crore spent on him.

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Pooran smashed 349 runs in the first six games at an astonishing strike rate of 215. However, in the next six outings, he managed to score only 106 runs with a big dip in strike rate to 156.

Failure in the bowling department

In the bowling department, the frontline spinner of LSG, Ravi Bishnoi, had a poor season with the ball. He claimed only nine wickets at an average of 41.66 (runs per wicket) and conceded runs at an economy rate of 10.84 (runs per over). He failed to curb the run flow in the middle overs and was even outperformed by the uncapped leggie Digvesh Rathi who was playing his maiden season.

Mayank Yadav was another risky investment. He had already proved to be injury-prone in the past, and unfortunately, history repeated itself. He missed a major part of the season due to injury.

Another bizarre decision was the purchase of Akash Deep for INR 8 crore. He is known for his red-ball skills and lacks experience in T20s. He played four matches, picked up only three wickets, and had an economy rate of 12.25 before being dropped.

Another experienced campaigner, David Miller was bought for INR 7.5 crore but managed to score only 153 runs in 11 innings. LSG heavily relied on their top-order batters in Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran in the middle overs. However, lack of reliable finishers and specialist T20 pacers hurt them.

In the end, it wasn’t just Pant who failed. There were only certain players who were performing, but it was Pant who had to face each and every bullet for the teams' failure. Conversely, it was a collective failure of poor squad planning, questionable buys, and lack of depth that led to LSG’s downfall in IPL 2025.

Franchises should think before investing heavily in certain players because if you don't get the expected returns, the ship of your team sinks and fast.