Lucknow’s home record has gone from concern to recurring headache. Three matches at Ekana this season, three defeats – the latest a 40-run loss to Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday – and the questions keep circling. Coach Justin Langer again spoke of the need to “adapt” to what he felt was “a brilliant cricket pitch”, yet on television duty Faf du Plessis and Dale Steyn felt the problems lie more in the heads than in the surface.
“What is your strength? What has worked for us? Stick with it,” du Plessis said on the TimeOut show. “So what’s worked for them is they’ve had a good opening pair last year [Marsh and Markram]. And now you’re trying to fill all the holes and it’s impossible. It’s like trying to please everyone. You can’t please everyone. So stick to your strengths… It’s just too much.”
Steyn went a step further, naming the issue rather than skirting it. “Pooran. Pooran is the catalyst in this,” he said. “The poor form of Pooran just means that you’re moving good batters [around] to try and shepherd him… But they’re too scared to drop Pooran because they don’t have the faith in maybe somebody like a [Matthew] Breetzke to come in to the team.”
The numbers back up the observation. Nicholas Pooran has played all seven fixtures but managed only 73 runs, top-scoring with 22 and striking at 82.02 – miles below his career rate. Last year he cleared 500 runs; Mitchell Marsh passed 600 and Aiden Markram nudged 450. Now, with Pooran short of rhythm, the batting order has become a carousel: Marsh and Ayush Badoni opened against Royals, while Markram slipped to No. 4 behind Rishabh Pant and Pooran. In the previous match the same trio began, yet two games earlier Markram had been back at the top.
From the outside it looks a search for comfort rather than a plan. du Plessis argued that the constant movement only magnifies early wickets: “You’ll be two down in the powerplay” was his blunt assessment. Steyn’s view was less technical, more psychological. He suggested the staff know Pooran’s ceiling is high and fear benching him, but that faith is undermining clarity elsewhere.
Langer fronted up afterwards, trying to keep the mood level. “Yeah, we haven’t quite clicked, have we,” he admitted. “Last year, our numbers were incredible and we were ruing the fact that a lot of our bowlers were injured or coming back from injury or not quite fit. This year our bowlers have been a real credit. Mohsin Khan, again, outstanding. Prince Yadav, I think they’re both players who will play for India. Super talents. Mayank [Yadav] came back today, which was rea”
The coach’s unfinished sentence summed up the evening: plenty of promise with no neat conclusion. Five losses from seven leave LSG jostling in the lower half, and the table seldom forgives protracted experiments. Unless Pooran rediscovers timing – or management accept a bold omission – the shuffling may continue, and with it the uncertainty that is costing Lucknow matches in their own backyard.
