Lucknow Super Giants’ head coach Justin Langer has opened up on the recent controversy involving his captain KL Rahul and owner Sanjiv Goenka. LSG were thrashed all over the park by Sunrisers Hyderabad in their recent IPL match. After putting on a target of 166 runs, the Nawabs were unable to show any fight in the second innings and ended up losing the game inside the first ten overs by 10 wickets.
Post the loss, LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka was seen having an animated conversation with skipper KL Rahul. The camera caught the visual of Goenka expressing his disappointment towards the team’s performances, but Justin Langer has finally opened up on what exactly had gone down. The former Australian international player is the coach of the franchise and has said that there was nothing serious happening in the conversation and labelled it as tame.
“It’s a massive storm in a teacup, in fact in an espresso cup. The thing that fascinates me about India is this incredible passion about cricket. Mr Goenka is no different. I’m no different, KL Rahul is no different. Our plan for the game didn’t go perfectly. In fact, it was a disaster. After the game, Mr Goenka came onto the field and asked KL, ‘What happened ? Our plan that we talked about hasn’t worked. What do we do now ?’ and then we talked through it. The sound was off, no one heard what he said. It might have looked quite aggressive, but it was really quite tame,” said Langer in an interview with TOI.
Can Justin Langer inspire the Lucknow Super Giants into the playoffs?
Justin Langer has the challenging task of leading the Lucknow Super Giants into the playoffs. The team is currently seventh in the table with 12 points and has two games left to play. Their next encounter is against the Delhi Capitals, which will be key to their survival in the competition. If the Nawabs can secure two wins in two games, their chances of making it to the playoffs will automatically increase.
Having lost their last two matches by heavy margins, LSG will also have to focus on the net run rate. The team will need something from their top order as they have failed to get a good start in this IPL season. Quinton De Kock and Devdutt Padikkal have both struggled to get going for LSG. Despite KL Rahul’s poor strike rate, he has been the only scoring hope for the team. Nicolas Pooran and Marcus Stoins have also contributed with the bat, but aside from these names, LSG have not got meaningful contributions from anyone.
Since losing the services of Mayanak Yadav, Lucknow has struggled to contain runs and lodge wickets. Their highest wicket-taker this season has been Yash Thakur who has 11 wickets to his name, but his economy of 11.32 has been hurting them in recent games. Justin Langer will be hoping that the Indian bowler improves his line and length as the other fast bowling options are not firing for them this season.
Lucknow could still make something out of the current season. They are in a bit of a predicament but could soar above it and surprise the spectators. Their side has some talented players, who will be looking to respond to their recent struggles with a big performance in the upcoming games.
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