From ₹27 crore for Pant to bottom of the table: how LSG's IPL 2026 came apart
Lucknow Super Giants spent ₹27 crore on Rishabh Pant at the 2025 mega auction, retained Nicholas Pooran for ₹21 crore, and finished the 2026 league phase at the bottom of the table. Four wins from 13 matches, eliminated weeks before the playoffs, and the latest defeat to send them home from Jaipur on Tuesday night. None of that was in the pre-season script.
The ₹27 crore Pant signing was the most expensive in IPL history. LSG had bid up to ₹20.5 crore at the 2025 auction before Delhi Capitals threatened a Right-to-Match. The new RTM rule forced Lucknow to submit one final number that DC would have to match to take Pant back, and Lucknow's number was ₹27. The franchise was paying for a wicketkeeper-batter, a captain, and a face for the next five years. By May 2026 they had a captain leading a side at the bottom of the standings.
A top order that never settled
Pant's own season never took off. The same expectations that came with the price tag came with the leadership role, and LSG's batting plans kept shuffling around them. Pooran, the reliable hitter from 2025, started 2026 without a top-three slot and produced 82 runs at an average of 10.25 and a strike rate of 81.19 across his first eight matches. He broke through with 63 off 21 against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede on 4 May, his first T20 fifty in 18 innings, but an unusually high dot-ball rate before that knock told the story of the months before.
The opening pair was no steadier. Mitchell Marsh and Josh Inglis were good for a powerplay launch most nights, including the 109-run opening stand they gave LSG in the RR loss, but the side rarely converted strong starts into totals that travelled. They batted past 200 only three times in their first 11 games in a season where almost everyone else was clearing that mark routinely.
The bowling that never arrived
Mayank Yadav was meant to be the X-factor. The young quick had announced himself in 2024 with raw pace and the fastest delivery of that IPL season, and LSG built their bowling identity around him. Fitness problems prevented him from putting together a sustained run in 2026, and there was no settled bowling combination behind him to absorb the gap.
The death overs were the real fault line. LSG repeatedly failed to defend competitive totals or chase under pressure. They posted 228 against Mumbai Indians and still lost with deliveries to spare. They were rolled for 141 against Delhi Capitals. They tied 156 against KKR only to lose the Super Over, and couldn't chase 160 against RR earlier in the season. A team that pays ₹27 crore for a finisher-captain expects to win those nights, not lose them. Conceding 225 to a side chasing 221 in 19.1 overs in Jaipur on Tuesday was just the latest version of the same problem.
What comes next
Pooran put it bluntly to broadcasters before the toss in Jaipur. "I haven't been good enough," he said of his own season and the criticism around LSG's flop show, and there is something useful in that for the franchise to work with over the off-season. LSG have one league match left and then a winter of decisions. The Pant question is the biggest one. The Mayank rebuild and the Pooran reset are the next two. Prince Yadav's IPL 2026 surge gave them at least one bowler to plan around for next year.
For a side that was being talked about as a title contender in March, that is a thin set of returns from a year that cost them more than any other franchise.
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