“He’s primarily a red-ball bowler” - Former CSK batter slams LSG’s auction strategy after IPL 2025 elimination

Former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batter Abhinav Mukund slammed Lucknow Super Giants' (LSG) auction strategy after their elimination from IPL 2025. With their loss against SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH), Lucknow are now out of the playoff race this season.

While LSG have had a power-packed batting line-up, the bowling unit has not been as great. Mukund spoke about their retentions and auction picks, stating that the franchise may have gotten 'emotional' with certain picks.

He said that while Avesh Khan was a good pick, Akash Deep has played only a few IPL matches and is more of a red-ball bowler. Mukund also added that they made emotional decisions with the likes of Mayank Yadav and Ravi Bishnoi.

"Avesh is a tick, but Akash has played a handful of games in the IPL. 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," he said on ESPN Cricinfo.

At the same time, Mukund also mentioned LSG getting lucky with a few of their choices such as Ayush Badoni and Digvesh Rathi, who have performed well this season.

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LSG eliminated from IPL 2025 playoffs race after defeat to SRH

As mentioned earlier, LSG are now out of the playoffs race this season, becoming the fifth team to be eliminated. They were in a must-win situation against SRH but lost by six wickets.

Lucknow now have five wins and seven defeats from 12 games, gathering 10 points. Even if they manage to win their remaining two games in the league stage, they will only get to 14 points, which will not be enough to take them to the next stage.

Another key reason behind their elimination has been the poor form of their skipper Rishabh Pant. The left-handed wicket-keeper batter has had a miserable season with the bat. He has scored just 135 runs from 11 innings at an average of 12.27 and a strike-rate of 100 with just one half-century in the entire tournament.