Faf du Plessis comes up with one-word response to LSG’s baffling ways in IPL 2026

Former South African captain Faf du Plessis has described Lucknow Super Giants’ (LSG) tactics of tweaking their batting order as ‘scrambling’. Hinting that a sense of panic seems to have set into the LSG camp, he questioned the move to separate the opening pair of Mitchell Marsh and Aiden Markram even though the duo has failed to replicate the batting form they displayed last year.

LSG will take on Rajasthan Royals (RR) in match number 32 of IPL 2026 at Ekana Cricket Stadium on Wednesday, April 22. The Super Giants are languishing at ninth position in the points table, with just two wins from six games. The batting line-up, which looks extremely strong on paper, has failed to deliver.

During a discussion on ESPNcricinfo Timeout, Du Plessis questioned LSG’s move of tinkering with the batting order, particular the decision to move Markram to the middle order for the match against Punjab Kings (PBKS). He commented:

“Scrambling. That is the best way to describe it. You don’t want to do that. In the auction, we would’ve gone, amazing top four, great batting line-up, questions around some of the bowling. Then you start the competition, your main players are not in form and now all of a sudden you start tweaking.”

Du Plessis stated that LSG find themselves in a bit of a quandary since both skipper Rishabh Pant and Nicholas Pooran like batting at No. 3. He stated:

“The best position for Pooran to bat is probably number three. He’s shown that in T20 cricket. Now you move him to number five. Pant’s best position is also number three, so now the skipper gets to choose where he wants to bat. You’ve got Markram and Mitch Marsh, which was a success story last year for them. Now you’ve taken a strength, which is the opening pair, and you’re saying, let’s fill a hole, which is our middle order.”

Markam is LSG’ leading run-getter in IPL 2026 so far. In six innings, he has scored 162 runs at a strike rate of 160.30. Marsh has 155 runs at a strike rate of 134.78, while Mukul Choudhary and Ayush Badoni have both scored 148 runs at identical strike rates of 145.09.

“Form of Pooran most concerning” – Aaron Finch on LSG’s batting woes

Joining the discussion on LSG’s batting struggles in IPL 2026, former Australian captain Aaron Finch opined that the poor form of Pooran would worry the franchise the most. Finch explained that LSG have shelled out humongous sums to retain Pooran and skipper Pant and their no-show is causing significant damage to the team’s chances. He elaborated:

“The form of Pooran would be the thing for them that would be the most concerning thing, which probably confuses things a little bit more. You put a lot of your resources at the auction table into Pooran at number four, Pant at three. So that’s a significant amount of your salary cap in two players that they’re not getting enough out of.

“At what point does LSG say, look we can’t find a spot for Pooran in the current form that he’s in. That would be an incredibly difficult conversation because when he’s at his best he wins you the game,” Finch concluded.

In six innings in IPL 2026, Pooran has managed only 51 runs at a strike rate of 79.68. As for Pant, he has 147 runs in six innings at a strike rate of 136.11.