Mitchell Marsh arrives in IPL 2026, but a little too late for LSG

Mitchell Marsh just struck the fastest hundred for the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), 49 balls. But form has come all too late for Marsh and LSG. By the time he found the ticket, the train had already left the station. Lucknow is the worst team in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026, with just 2 wins from 9 matches. And this hundred highlights the issues.

Before the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) match at home, LSG had two fast bowlers, Prince Yadav and Mohsin, with at least 10 wickets in IPL 2026. Both were among the top 15 wicket-takers in the season. Mohammed Shami wasn’t far behind with 8 wickets.

Mohsin Khan has taken 10 wickets in 5 matches for LSG | Image Credit: AP Photo/Manish Swarup via Alamy

LSG’s batting woes

But batting painted a sorry picture. Only one batter, Marsh, was among the top 15 run-getters. Only one batter averaged over 30, and none struck at even 150. For comparison, RCB have 4 batters with at least 200 runs and a strike rate of over 165: Virat Kohli, Phil Salt, Devdutt Padikkal, and Rajat Patidar.

Without a shadow of a doubt, LSG have the worst top four in IPL 2026. Nicholas Pooran struck at 82 until that fiery 63-run knock against the Mumbai Indians (MI). One can imagine that one of your batters is out of form. But Pant, Marsh, and Marsh were clicking either.

LSG batters in IPL 2026 (before RCB match)

Baffling selections & tactics

But it isn’t just the batters that deserve the blame. The management has to shoulder responsibility as well. In the first game of the season, Pant opened the batting ahead of Markram. Pooran was pushed down to number five despite all of his success at number three last season.

Since then, Badoni has been told to open and then dropped from the side entirely. Markram has been dropped down to number five. Pooran has returned to number three and then scored 63 off 21. Josh Inglis joined the team and was told to open. When he got injured, not Markram but Arshin Kulkarni was made to open.

Rishabh Pant took over Nicholas Pooran’s number five position, which saw both batters struggle | Image Credit: AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A. via Alamy

These tactics are baffling. The constant shuffling of batting positions doesn’t make sense. You want to give batters consistent runs. If you chop and change after each failure, how can you expect players to fire? Now, had all batters been in top form, perhaps one could paper over the cracks. But that wasn’t the case.

If this hundred from Marsh could’ve come earlier, one can imagine LSG somehow pulling through and ending at 5 or 6 on the points table, but they are languishing at the bottom. Sometimes that’s all you need, a great knock to turn things around or perhaps to justify the decisions taken. But nothing has worked for LSG. Neither the batters nor the tactics.

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