Moody: Pant, Pooran price tags left LSG light on their bowling

After Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) were knocked out of IPL 2025 playoff contention by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Monday, Tom Moody on ESPNcricinfo's Time Out pointed out that LSG could not build a bowling unit after spending heavily on Rishabh Pant (INR 27 crore) at the auction and retaining Nicholas Pooran for a hefty sum (INR 21 crore).

"The expense on Rishabh Pant and Nicholas Pooran, those two players, makes it very hard to build a very strong bowling unit," Moody said. "Because you just don't have the funds to compete at the auction table.

"In an ideal world, it's great to have Pooran, [David] Miller, [Mitchell] Marsh, Pant... all these are impactful batters but at the end of the day you need to bowl. You've got to be able to have an impactful bowling unit in powerplays. Be adaptable in the middle overs and take wicket and squeeze the opposition. And in the back-end of the innings, you need people to close the game under pressure - take wickets, bowl those really challenging overs when the opposition is going hell-for-leather against you. And I just don't think they've got any of that."

In their bowling unit, left-arm pacer Mohsin Khan missed the entire season, while Mayank Yadav, who was retained by LSG, was mostly on the sidelines. Avesh Khan and Akash Deep also struggled with fitness issues, which resulted in their below-par performances while Mohsin's replacement Shardul Thakur also tapered off after a promising start.

Abhinav Mukund echoed Moody's thoughts but also thought LSG may have erred by getting "really emotional" with their picks, especially when selecting Mayank and Ravi Bishnoi.

"Avesh is a tick, but Akash has played a handful of games in the IPL," Abhinav said. "He's primary a red-ball bowler known in this country for his red-ball skills. And over and above that, you've invested in Mayank Yadav. A lot of teams get emotional about their picks, they get really emotional like 'we've found him, we need to have him, we need to ensure that he's here.' That's the same with Bishnoi.

However despite the underwhelming bowling returns, the performance of Digvesh Rathi - the only LSG bowler to have featured in all 12 games and was also their best bowler with 14 wickets at an economy rate of 8.18 - was a positive.

"But why I say they've gotten lucky [is] because they've got two players who've gone under the radar for them," Abhinav added. "Which was one retention in Ayush Badoni, who's had a very decent season, and the other is one guy who has played just two games for his state side, which is Digvesh Rathi, who has turned out to be exceptional at [INR] 30 lakhs. And then you've invested in another 30 lakhs bowler in Prince Yadav, who hasn't done too badly for that kind of price.

While Bishnoi was a sure starter in the XI before LSG kickstarted their campaign this time, he did not have the kind of impact that LSG expected out of him. Bishnoi played 11 matches and picked up nine wickets at an economy of 10.83.

"He's become too predictable," Abhinav explained. "He doesn't have a variation other than the googly, he definitely needs to work on his speeds and he needs to understand how to get out of an over once he starts getting hit."