GameDay Squad IND Fantasy Cricket Squad Preview: The Lucknow Super Giants! Get the inside scoop on the Lucknow Super Giants Cricket Squad for the upcoming GameDay Squad competition with an in-depth analysis and preview. Find out who to watch out for!
The Lucknow Super Giants enter their third season in the Indian Premier League and will look to make the finals for the third time. In the last two seasons, the Super Giants have been knocked out after losing the first match in the finals. The Super Giants squad hasn't changed too much ahead of the 2024 season, and they have still managed to retain the core of their playing group. We might just see them improve on last season's 4th position and make it to their first final.
Squad (Averages and position rank for IPL 2023 included)
Ayush Badoni – Batsman (AVG 16, Rank 37th)
KL Rahul – Wicket-Keeper (AVG 38, Rank 6th)
Quinton de Kock – Wicket-Keeper (AVG 50, Rank 2nd)
Nicholas Pooran – Wicket-Keeper (AVG 36, Rank 8th)
Yudhvir Singh – All-rounder (AVG 27, Rank 32nd)
David Willey – All-rounder (AVG 39, Rank 15th)
Arshin Kulkarni – All-rounder (AVG N/A, Rank N/A)
Arshad Khan – All-rounder (AVG 24, Rank 36th)
Manimaran Siddharth – Bowler (AVG N/A, Rank N/A)
Devdutt Padikkal – Batsman (AVG 31, Rank 20th)
Ashton Turner – Batsman (AVG N/A, Rank N/A)
Krishnappa Gowtham – All-rounder (AVG 35, Rank 22nd)
Marcus Stoinis – All-rounder (AVG 45, Rank 8th)
Krunal Pandya – All-rounder (AVG 39, Rank 13th)
Kyle Mayers – All-rounder (AVG 39, Rank 14th)
Deepak Hooda – All-rounder (AVG 16, Rank 43rd)
Prerak Mankad – All-rounder (AVG 25, Rank 35th)
Mohsin Khan – Bowler (AVG 19, Rank 67th)
Shivam Mavi – Bowler (AVG N/A, Rank N/A)
Yash Thakur – Bowler (AVG 37, Rank 17th)
Naveen-ul-Haq – Bowler (AVG 47, Rank 4th)
Mayank Yadav – Bowler (AVG N/A, Rank N/A)
Amit Mishra – Bowler (AVG 31, Rank 37th)
Ravi Bishnoi – Bowler (AVG 35, Rank 23rd)
Shamar Joseph – Bowler (AVG N/A, Rank N/A)
IPL 2023 stats from LSG home matches played at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium
Six games played; LSG won three of them
Team winning the toss won four matches
Team batting first won four matches
Average first innings score of 152 (lowest 121 / highest 193)
Batter GDS average 22 points per match
All-rounder GDS average 34 points per match
Bowler GDS average 34 points per match
Wicketkeeper GDS average 33 points per match
78 wickets taken by bowlers, 42 to seam and 36 to spin
Batters
Devdutt Padikkal has joined Lucknow Super Giants from the Rajasthan Royals for the 2024 IPL season. He had a mixed bag performances last season and will be a risky starting option for most of the LSG matches. He averaged 24 runs across his 11 matches and ranked as one of the top three batters in a match on five occasions. In IND Cricket, coaches can start wicket keepers at the batter position, and this may make some of the wicket keepers from LSG more appealing starting options than Padikkal. We will delve into this more in the wicket keeper section of this blog. With only three players at LSG with a batter position designation, Padikkal seems to be the more relevant player as he will likely start more matches than Ashton Turner and Ayush Badoni.
Bowlers
The Afghan pace man Naveen-ul-Haq is the pick of LSG bowlers for me. Due to the nature of T20 cricket, we can see some of the best cricketers in the world miss fire when it comes to fantasy and Naveen-ul-Haq is no exception to this. Last season he picked up 11 wickets over the 7 matches that he played and ranked as one of the top three bowlers in a match on four occasions. Naveen-ul-Haq bowled his full compliment of overs in all of his matches, and he was the 4th ranked bowler with an average of 47 points. He is a good starting option and will likely be one of the first bowlers selected in GameDay Squad whenever LSG play!
All-rounders
Marcus Stoinis will likely be LSG's most sought after all-rounder. Last season he averaged 45 points and was ranked 8th in the all-rounder rankings. LSG used him as a batting all-rounder, and he averaged 29 runs with the bat. Stoinis didn't have many opportunities with the ball and only bowled a total of 11 overs, but he made them count and picked up 5 wickets. I believe he is a risky option in most matches as you never know which Stoinis will turn up. He ranked as one of the top four all-rounders in a match in eight of his fourteen matches. All this being said, I still have Stoinis ranked above his teammate Krunal Pandya but there isn't much separating them. Stoinis offers a higher ceiling, but Pandya has been more consistent in fantasy terms as he bats higher up the order and bowls more. Both players should be able to do a decent job for GDS coaches and I wouldn't be surprised if they slot into many GDS starting XIs whenever LSG play!
Wicket Keeper
Now this is the most interesting position for LSG as they have three relevant options. The pick of these players is Quinton de Kock as he opens the batting, and he has been one of the best wicket keepers on the world stage for several years. Last season he only played the four matches but did have an average 38 runs. He was behind the stumps in all of these matches and LSG won three of them. When QDK, Pooran and Rahul all start, I think we will see QDK behind the stumps once again.
There isn't much separating Pooran and Rahul going by their performances last season, but Rahul did average two more points than Pooran. In the eight matches they played together, Rahul outscored Pooran on four occasions. Basically, it's a coin flip on who to start out of these two players but they both wouldn't look out of place in the GDS starting XI whenever LSG play.
Predicted Starting XI
1. Quinton de Kock
2. Devdutt Padikkal
3. Nicholas Pooran
4. KL Rahul
5. Krunal Pandya
6. Marcus Stoinis
7. Deepak Hooda
8. Shivam Mavi
9. Ravi Bishnoi
10. Mohsin Khan
11. Naveen-ul-Haq
Impact Player: Ayush Badoni