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Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) have had a depleted pace attack in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. They have not gone for West Indies pacer Shamar Joseph and roped in Shardul Thakur who went unsold in the auction. While Avesh Khan has returned, they are missing the services of speedster Mayank Yadav and Akash Deep. After the comrepehensive defeat against against Punjab Kings (PBKS) at home, Rishabh Pant-led LSG have received a position news. Ahead of the clash against Mumbai Indians (MI) at home on April 4, Deep is likely to join LSG camp.
As per a report by ESPNCricinfo, Deep is likely to available for LSG's fourth game of the season. Deep has been doing rehabilitation alongside Mumbai Indians' (MI) Jasprit Bumrah at the Centre of Excellence (formerly NCA) in Bengaluru. The 28-year-old has been out of the side since he sustained a back injury during Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. His last match was the fourth Test of the series at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in December 2024.
Deep's price tag and IPL statistics
Deep was LSG's third-most expensive buy in the IPL 2025 mega auction. He was roped in for Rs 8 crore. Deep has played a total of eight matches for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and taken seven wickets at an average of 45.57 and economy rate of 11.67 runs per over. He played just one game for RCB in the previous season.
Pitch controversy takes centrestage
After Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), LSG are the third franchise to complain about the lack of home advantage. After captain Pant said in the post-match presentation that he expected a slow wicket, mentor Zaheer Khan went on to say that it felt like the Punjab curator prepared the pitch.
"What was a little disappointing for me here, considering it's a home game..." Zaheer told the reporters in the post-match press conference. "In IPL, you've seen how teams have looked at taking a little bit of home advantage, you know, so yeah, from that point of view, you've seen the curator is not really thinking that it's a home game, you know. I think maybe it looked like, you know, it was Punjab curator out here.
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"That's something which we'll figure out. It's a new setup for me also here. But I hope that this is the first and the last game when it comes to that, because you are disappointing the Lucknow fans as well. They've come up with so much expectations of winning the first home game here.
"As a team, we are confident, you know, we accept that we've lost the game, and we're going to do whatever it takes to make that impact in the home leg. We still have six more games to go here."
LSG are currently placed sixth on the points table with two losses from three games. Their net run rate (NRR) has taken a hit as well.
