In their debut IPL season, the Lucknow Super Giants reached the playoffs, finishing 3rd in the league stage, but lost to RCB in the Eliminator.
Despite a top 4 finish, the KL Rahul-led franchise has released some of the established international stars who played a key role in their success last season, such as the likes of Holder, Chameera, and Evin Lewis. Veteran Indian and IPL batsman Manish Pandey has also faced the ax from the Andy Flower and Gautam Gambhir-coached management.
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) released players: Jason Holder, Dushmantha Chameera, Evin Lewis, Andrew Tye, Manish Pandey, Ankit Rajpoot, Shahbaz Nadeem
LSG have though retained their solid core of Indian and overseas players, out of which an entire XI can be carved that is strong enough to challenge even if they don’t add any player to their squad.
Here is Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) best XI among retained players:
KL Rahul (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Deepak Hooda, Kyle Mayers, Ayush Badoni, Marcus Stoinis, Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan, Mark Wood, Avesh Khan
Captain Rahul and his opening partners de Kock were LSG’s top-two run-scorer last season with 616 runs and 505 runs, respectively. Deepak Hooda was their third-highest scorer with 451 runs. Hooda has now gained plenty of experience with the Indian team and is also a handy part-time off-spinner option.
West Indies all-rounder Kyle Mayers didn’t get any opportunity with Lucknow last season, but has been retained due to his rise in international cricket in the past few months. Australian Marcus Stoinis and IPL seasoned campaigner Krunal Pandya will remain LSG’s all-round core.
Young Ayush Badoni was impressive in his debut IPL season has been retained, and so has been Manan Vohra who couldn’t do much with the bat in IPL 2022, failing to grab his chances.
While LSG have let go of Chameera, they have retained Mark Wood, the England fast bowler who had missed the IPL 2022 due to injury. Avesh Khan and Mohsin Khan, both of whom produced startling performances last season and picked a combined of 28 wickets, are retained, so has been young leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi, who snapped up 13 wickets.
Off-spinner Krishnappa Gowtham, who picked 5 wickets in 4 matches, will continue with LSG in 2023. Jason Holder, however, despite taking 14 wickets has been released. So, LSG will look for some overseas new ball bowlers having released both Holder and Chameera.
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) retained players:
KL Rahul (c), Ayush Badoni, Ravi Bishnoi, Quinton de Kock, Krishnappa Gowtham, Deepak Hooda, Mohsin Khan, Avesh Khan, Kyle Mayers, Krunal Pandya, Karan Sharma, Marcus Stoinis, Manan Vohra, Mark Wood, Mayank Yadav
