In a major development, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) appointed Abhay Sharma as their fielding coach, replacing South African legend Jonty Rhodes, ahead of the IPL 2026 season. After consecutive failures in two consecutive seasons of the Indian Premier League, the LSG franchise is making several changes to its set-up.
The franchise not only updated its team through the mini auction but is also making significant changes in its back office to give the team a new look and new hope. Before appointing Sharma, he had recently appointed former Australia all-rounder Tom Moody as his global cricket director and New Zealand batting great Kane Williamson as strategic advisor.
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) appoint Abhay Sharma as part of their IPL 2026 plans
As part of its recent development process, the Lucknow-based franchise added former Delhi cricketer Abhay Sharma, who will join the team with a decorated coaching background in domestic and international cricket. Earlier, Sharma got a chance to work with current LSG captain Rishabh Pant during his formative phase.
During his coaching career, Abhay has worked with many star cricketers of Team India, including Pant, Shubman Gill, Arshdeep Singh, Dhruv Jurel, Avesh Khan and Yashasvi Jaiswal at the junior level.
Abhay Sharma is among the coaching talents who have served the national team at the highest level of age-group cricket. The Delhi-born player was part of the India Under-19 support staff during the 2016, 2018 and 2020 Under-19 World Cups.
Sharma worked as a coach for many teams of Team India.
In 2018, when Sharma was the fielding coach of India Under-19, they created history by winning the title under Prithvi Shaw. Shubman Gill, Riyan Parag, Abhishek Sharma, Anukul Roy and Ishan Porel were also integral parts of the trophy-winning team.
Apart from working with the India Under-19 team, Abhay also worked with the India women’s national cricket team in 2021. During his tenure, Harleen Deol took a brilliant catch near the boundary line to dismiss Amy Jones, which was one of the best frames for the fielding coach.
Abhay also served as a head coach on the international stage. He was appointed as the head coach of the Uganda national cricket team. Under his guidance, the team appeared in the 2024 T20 World Cup in USA and West Indies.
LSG displayed some poor quality fielding in the IPL 2025 season
Last season, LSG finished seventh in the points table with 12 points from 14 matches. Apart from failure in batting, the team also faced poor performance in fielding.
According to Cricbuzz, Lucknow Super Giants dropped 14 catches and also missed 22 run-out chances in the first 9 IPL 2025 games, some of the worst figures scored by a fielding side in multiple matches. Meanwhile, Jonty Rhodes served as the fielding coach of the team from 2023 to 2025.
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