Six games in, Lucknow Super Giants are staring at an overseas problem. Before the season began, their one big worry was the potential over-reliance on the great triad: Markram-Marsh-Pooran. This season, that issue has flipped on its head.
In IPL 2025, the three combined to give LSG 1,596 runs, with 17 fifty-plus scores between them. LSG lost the playoffs race, but an enviable top-three shone as their one big strength. Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh batted exclusively as openers. Barring two gigs at No.4, Nicholas Pooran was the designated No.3.
The two times Pooran did not bat at three, Rishabh Pant promoted himself. In one of those, he cracked 118 off 61.
Except for that innings, and another fifty, Pant had a largely unremarkable season. The push to play up, and the century that followed, might have prompted Pant to explore more chances at the top, which he has this season. Since 2024, he has been striking at 167 versus pace, compared to 136.6 against spin. Higher the position, higher the chances of facing pace.
But that has, in turn, disbanded the holy trinity. Last game, chasing 255, they had Marsh opening, Pooran at four, and Markram at five.
Why would a team ditch the one thing going right for them?
The top-heavy theory comes back here. LSG have been grooming Ayush Badoni as a finisher for five seasons now. Abdul Samad was integrated into that role last year, and they've unearthed Mukul Choudhary this time. That's serious firepower on paper. But it's still a combo of three uncapped players, potentially in need of an experienced hand. Josh Inglis is yet to join the squad.
LSG had David Miller last year, and Marcus Stoinis until the year before that. Two proven finishers, around whom you could cultivate the next generation. This year, it was an all-Indian middle-order, with Pant counter-intuitively eager to bat as high as possible.
@B0$
It's led to them spreading those three overseas players across the lineup. And interestingly, they've decided to have Markram bat the lowest.
Now, Markram has played the No.5 role several times before: in fact, leading Sunrisers Eastern Cape in the 2025 SA20, he took upon that position himself. Out of the 23 times he has batted at five, 16 have been while captaining the side. Clearly, Markram is sold on the concept whenever it's required.
Ahead of their game against Rajasthan Royals, he clarified that will be his position going forward.
"I think it's really to free Badoni up," Markram said about the change. "He is a huge talent, and the world has seen that over the last couple of years. Then it allows a guy like myself to maybe be in the middle order and just control things and let the rest of the team really take the game on and play with their freedom. I think we'd see the same tomorrow. Naturally, we'll wait till tonight for selection.
"He's an exciting talent and I'm pretty sure he can have a massive role for us up top in the power play".
It is worth noting that, before the PBKS game, Badoni had opened only twice in 102 T20s.
@B1$
Nicholas Pooran has been LSG's most prolific batter in their short history. Last season, his strike-rate was a jaw-dropping 196.25 from 14 innings. Against spin, he was devastating: a strike-rate of 263.5 and 25 sixes. No wonder they could afford batting him lower than three.
But the Pooran of today looks like a pale shadow of that version. In 13 T20s this year, he has struck at 105.16, with a highest of 33. The sixes-to-innings ratio is less than one. In 64 balls this IPL, he has managed three in all.
Watching him in the nets, you could see a batter struggling for rhythm. The strokes did not have the same punch we're used to seeing, and only the odd hit had a clean flourish. It's this rhythm that Markram says the team has been plagued with, so much so that they now make fun of it.
"It's quite strange. We laugh about it in the sense that one or two guys can struggle as part of the game, but when it's the full batting line-up, the odds of that happening normally are quite slim," he said.
"I don't think you worry too much when a guy's a world-beater like Nicholas Pooran, as he has proved over a long period of time. People sometimes forget they are humans and are allowed to have a couple of bad weeks. When he gets it right, he certainly wins games for our team. He's just one knock away, and when the knock comes ultimately, it makes a big impact on the game".
It's not all doom-and-gloom according to Markram, who is seeking solace in their attempted chase against PBKS, and although they fell way short, it gave them their first and only 200+ total of the season so far. He insists that, despite the chaos of three straight losses, captain Pant's directives have been clear.
"We, as batters, haven't performed the way we would have liked to yet; fortunately, from his side, the messaging has been consistent. A couple of changes from a roles point of view, but I think the way that the team wants to play is pretty clear and that's all we can really push and all that he can really push.
"We're still living in that consistent space and if we get it right then hopefully, we can put a few good games together".
Ranked ninth right now, the window to do that is closing fast.
