LSG SWOT Analysis: Lucknow Super Giants made their debut in the 15th edition of the IPL in 2022. In their debut season itself, the team had a good run and qualified for the playoffs after securing the 2nd spot in the league table. Despite their first season being full of glory LSG could not win their first playoff match and this year would look to fancy their chances even more in the cup.
Strengths
The Super Giants probably have one of the most formidable batting line-ups among all franchises in the tournament. Skipper Rahul leads from the front with 600+ runs in almost all seasons since 2018 along with QDK who has also been a star performer with many watch-winning contributions. The middle order is significantly well-built with Deepak Hooda, the newly bought Nicholas Pooran, and star allrounders Stoinis and Krunal Pandya, this is probably the most balanced lineup of IPL 2023.
The team comprises many all-rounders, and even as backups for the all-rounder in the playing 11, LSG picked players like Sams, Romario Shepherd and Prerak Mankad who can replace the injured or low-performing players in the playing 11.
The Lucknow Super Giants bought Wood for a whooping price of 7+ crores, but he withdrew his name from IPL 2022 but is looking to make his debut for the LSG this year and is going to be a valuable player in their squad.
Weaknesses
The LSG team looks amazing on team sheets, whatever voids they faced in the first edition were filled in the mini-auction of 2023. Buys of Pooran, Sams and Shepherd can prove to be a good buy for the Super Giants. Though the team now does not have many voids in their team, their biggest weakness would still be their lack of game time together. All these cricketers are promising cricketers but they hardly get to play together anytime in a cricketing year.
Rahul is an Indian player, while QDK is a Protea, Pooran is from the West Indies, Stoinis from Australia and Krunal, Hooda, Mohsin, Avesh and Bishnoi are all Indian domestics playing for different states and they hardly have any time to play together as a unit.
Opportunities
LSG after their amazing debut would look to consolidate their performance further this year and fancy their chances at the IPL title. They would look to seal their playoff spot this year too.
Other opportunities would mark the selection of players like Krunal Pandya who with his performance would look to make an impact that can draw the selector’s attention towards him before the preparation matches for the T20 World Cup 2024 begin. Deepak Hooda who is now a part of the Indian T20 side would look to seal a permanent spot in the Indian T20 with his good stream of performance in the IPL.
India is also facing a huge crisis of pace bowlers in the absence of ace pacers Bumrah and Bhuvi and this opens the gates for players like Mohsin Khan who is a quality option for such a pick.
Threats
The biggest threat still looming over LSG is Wood’s injury, the Englishman suffered an injury before the second test against Pakistan and has not reported any comeback as of yet. His injury and rule-out would be a matter of big concern for the Super Giants.
The LSG squad has too many good overseas players, but they cannot feature in the playing 11 due to their overseas status.
Another huge threat to the LSG team is the bad patch of form for the big Aussie finisher Stoinis, who plays an eminent role in scoring quick runs down the order for the Super Giants.
Also Read:- IPL 2023: KKR SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats