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Former Team India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin takes an in-depth look at the performance of Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) for the IPL 2026 season, where they finished in 10th.th Ten-team league places. Ashwin pointed out some questionable decisions taken by the LSG management during the season, which may have affected their overall performance.
Ravichandran Ashwin raised many questions on LSG’s team selection. Some of the changes made by Lucknow in IPL 2026 made no sense to the former international cricketer.
R Ashwin raised questions on ignoring Ayush Badoni
One thing that Ashwin still hasn’t understood is Ayush Badoni’s omission from the playing eleven. Ahead of the Indian Premier League 2026, Ayush Badoni had a stellar domestic season but struggled with the bat with the Lucknow Super Giants.
Instead of relying on his talent, LSG continued to provide support to Nicholas Pooran, who was one of the flop batsmen in the season. Badoni is on track to play for Team India in the near future due to his excellence in domestic cricket.
Ravichandran Ashwin said in his YouTube video, “Nicholas Pooran couldn’t bat the ball the entire season, yet he supported Nicholas Pooran again and again. Ayush Badoni was called up to India, yet he had to miss many matches for LSG. They had to give him a chance for a long time. Then you sit Mukesh Chaudhary as the next best finisher and play Himmat Singh.”
Ayush Badoni vs Nicholas Pooran IPL 2026 batting stats comparison
Meanwhile, the 26-year-old Indian batsman finished his IPL 2026 season with a batting average of 21.50 as he scored 215 runs in 10 matches and as many innings. They lost a total of four matches.
On the other hand, Nicholas Pooran, who played all 14 matches in the group stage for Lucknow Super Giants, recorded a batting average of 18.00 as he scored only 234 runs in 14 matches and 14 innings.
They could have got the best from Pant: From Ashwin to LSG
Ashwin also expressed concern over the team’s batting strategy. At the beginning of the season, he promoted Rishabh Pant as the opening batsman along with Mitchell Marsh. Pant’s tenure as LSG’s opening batsman came to an abrupt end as he unfortunately got out early.
Ashwin believes that the team management should allow Rishabh Pant to play this role where he can score a lot of runs using the powerplay. In the latter part of the tournament, then Lucknow Super Giants captain Rishabh Pant found himself down the batting order as a middle-order batsman, with his form also showing no signs of improvement.
R Ashwin said in his YouTube channel, “If he had made Pant open, he could have got the best out of him. If he had opened and scored 600 runs, he would have captained well and listened to the coaches instead of saying that he was going to take a lot of decisions. Once he played musical chairs with Pant, half of his tournament was over there.”
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