IPL 2022: SWOT Analysis of Lucknow Super Giants (LSG)

Standing in their maiden season, franchise Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) were the only team to utilize their full purse at the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 mega auction. The franchise went into the mega auction with an amount of INR 59.98 crore after signing KL Rahul (INR 17 crore), Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis (INR 9.2 crore) and leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi (INR 4 crore) in the draft.

Led by mentor Gautam Gambhir, the franchise made some smart buys in the auction including South African star batsman Quinton de Kock (INR 6.75 crore), Manish Pandey (INR 4.6 crore) and Evin Lewis (INR 2 crore). LSG also purchased a number of allrounders including Jason Holder (INR 8.75 crore), Krunal Pandya (INR 8.25 crore) and  Deepak Hooda (5.75 crore) among others.

In bowling department, pacer Avesh Khan (INR 10 crore), who has raised through the ranks in past IPL seasons and even making it to the national squad, will be given the responsibility with the new cherry. England express pacer Mark Wood (INR 7.5 crore) and Sri Lankan fast bowler Dushmanta Chameera (INR 2 crore) will be among the choice to open the bowling attack alongside Khan.

Here’s the full Lucknow Super Giants squad:

KL Rahul (c), Ravi Bishnoi, Marcus Stoinis, Deepak Hooda, Jason Holder, Manish Pandey, Quinton de Kock (wk), Krunal Pandya, Mark Wood, Avesh Khan, Ankit Singh Rajpoot, Krishnappa Gowtham, Dushmanta Chameera, Shahbaz Nadeem, Manan Vohra, Mohsin Khan, Ayush Badoni, Kyle Mayers, Karan Sharma, Evin Lewis, Mayank Yadav.

Here’s a SWOT Analysis of the LSG squad for IPL 2022:

Strengths: Well rounded bowling options

Going in the tournament, LSG have a very well balanced bowling line-up. While, pacers Mark Wood, Avesh Khan and Jason Holder will be handling the fast-bowling department and provide early breakthroughs during the field restrictions. Pacer Avesh Khan and Dushmanta Chameera can also play a vital role to plug the flow of runs during the death overs.

The franchise also holds a very aggressive spin-bowling department. To be led by wrist-spinner Ravi Bishnoi, who has performed extremely well for the Punjab Kings in the past seasons, LSG holds a variety of finger spinners in the form of K Gowtham and Krunal Pandya. It would be interesting to see if skipper Rahul decides to use his finger spin options during the powerplay overs and save overs of his pace bowlers to have an extra cushion during the death overs.