Three reasons why Lucknow Super Giants failed to reach the playoffs in IPL 2025

Rishabh Pant’s side suffered their seventh defeat of the season last night — their fourth in a row — and were knocked out of IPL 2025. The maximum they can now end with is 14 points, which won’t be enough to qualify for the top four. Lucknow Super Giants seemed like a solid side on paper, with a talismanic Rishabh Pant as captain and plenty of power-packed overseas players like Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, and Nicholas Pooran. They also had an experienced coach in Justin Langer, and looked primed to qualify in the top four. However, they struggled to turn their own paper advantage into real-world results. 

Here’s a look at three reasons why LSG failed to reach the playoffs in IPL 2025: 

1. Out of form Rishabh Pant

Rishabh Pant became the most expensive player in the IPL as he was roped in for 27 crores by Lucknow Super Giants. He was expected to be the talismanic presence in their middle-order, with the team owner talking about Pant as an investment for the next 10 years by the franchise. The southpaw was also given captaincy responsibilities this season. 

Rishabh Pant, however, has struggled to live up to his lofty standards, enduring a nightmarish season in IPL 2025. He averages 12.27 for this season, with one fifty to his name, which came in a losing cause against Chennai Super Kings. The weight of expectations has drowned out Rishabh Pant this season, as he seems to be struggling against pace and spin. His captaincy has been a bit below par as well, reflecting LSG’s league position for the season. 

2. Not many wicket-taking bowlers

Bowling was one area where Lucknow Super Giants seemed light from the onset. They took a gamble by picking a largely Indian bowling core, focusing their overseas players at the top of the order. They were also hampered by injury as speedster Mayank Yadav was unavailable for the start of the season, and also lost Mohsin Khan, who was replaced by Shardul Thakur. 

Their bowling attack when the season started comprised Avesh Khan, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, Ravi Bishnoi, and a couple of rookies in Prince Yadav and Digvesh Rathi. While all of them are skillful operators, none of these bowlers are necessarily regarded as a real wicket-taker in the T20 format. LSG got a bit lucky with Digvesh Rathi turning out to be a revelation, but their bowling attack lacked any real bite this season. 

3. Overdependence on overseas players

Lucknow Super Giants were heavily reliant on their overseas batters, as Mitch Marsh, Nicholas Pooran, and Aiden Markram did the bulk of the scoring for them this season. All three of them had 400+ run seasons, but they struggled to perform as a unit and often failed at crunch situations. Pooran started the competition in red-hot form but fizzled out by the second half of the tournament. He managed just one score above 30 in his last six games, which came yesterday against SRH.