3 LSG players who are not in form heading into IPL 2025 ft. Rishabh Pant

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) will kick off their fourth Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign on Monday, March 24. They’ll face Delhi Capitals in their first match of this season at the Dr. YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam.

The franchise parted ways with KL Rahul ahead of the mega-auction and roped wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant into the side, naming him the skipper. The 27-year-old will lead LSG against his former team DC in their first game.

LSG made it to the playoffs in the 2022 and 2023 editions of the tournament but are yet to get their hands on the coveted cup. With the mega-auction bringing in significant changes in the squad, it’ll be interesting to see how the players come together and perform in the upcoming season.

Speaking of players, the think tank will be in a mix given the current form of some of their top players on the squad. On that note, let’s look at three players who are struggling with form heading into the IPL 2025.

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#3 Mitchell Marsh

Australian cricketer Mitchell Marsh picked up a back injury and was subsequently ruled out of the recently concluded Champions Trophy. The Aussies faced a semi-final exit after suffering a defeat to eventual champions India.

Marsh has now been cleared to play for the franchise but only as a batter owing to injury concerns. Nonetheless, he hasn’t been in form either with the bat or with the ball. Though Australia won the Border Gavaskar Trophy 3-1 after a dominating performance, Marsh failed to shine.

His last 10 outings, which include international, domestic and franchise cricket, have been dismal and he sure will face difficulty with the bat if given a chance in the playing XI.

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#2 Ayush Badoni

Ayush Badoni was among the five players retained by LSG as the franchise reserved his services and retained him for ₹4 crore under the uncapped player category. He was originally brought by the franchise in 2022 at his base price of ₹20 lakh.

While he performed well in first-class cricket during the Ranji Trophy as an all-rounder, his outings in List A and T20 have been dismal.

At the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024-25, Badoni failed to put up a show with the bat and was 61st on the list of players with the most runs. He could accumulate just 180 runs in eight innings of nine games, with just one 50+ score. The team will expect him to do well and go big this time, having shown faith in him with the retention.

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#1 Rishabh Pant

India’s wicketkeeper-batter and LSG’s new skipper Rishabh Pant hasn’t played a 20-over competitive game since India toured Sri Lanka in July 2024. He had an average outing at the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25, having kept the wickets in all five Tests.

Overall, Pant hasn’t played much cricket since his lone appearance in Delhi’s Ranji Trophy match against Saurashtra in January. With KL Rahul being India’s first-choice keeper-batter at the Champions Trophy, Pant remained on the bench throughout the tournament.

Pant has missed a lot of game time and his form in the previous games hadn’t been appealing either. With the added responsibility of leading a new franchise, and being the costliest buy in the history of IPL, it’ll be interesting to see how the 27-year-old manages the pressure and gets his game going.