Lucknow, April 23 (IANS) Lucknow Super Giants head coach (LSG) Justin Langer admitted his batters have struggled to cope and adjust to the extra pace and bounce at the BRSABV Ekana Stadium and equated the pitches here to ‘playing at the WACA’ in his hometown Perth.

LSG have lost all of their home games so far in IPL 2026, with the latest instance of it coming through a 40-run defeat to Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday. “I think the pitch here is very different than in most of India. It’s a brilliant cricket pitch. You see pace and bounce and we just haven’t quite adjusted to it. I thought we started off with bowling quite well in it.

“We bowled well in the first game but we’re just not adjusting to the extra pace and bounce. We saw that we’ve been out to the short ball a number of times, our batters, and that’s what I would say,” Langer said at the postmatch presser.

The side’s batting returns at the venue this season have been modest – as seen from them making 141, 164/8 and 119. “So we’re not adjusting. We see a lot of the wickets in India where the ball doesn’t bounce very high. This is like playing at the WACA (Perth).

“There’s real pace and bounce, isn’t there? I mean you’re seeing some really interesting cricket being played here and we just haven’t been able to adapt to it at this stage. We haven’t quite clicked, have we?” added Langer.

Despite the batting woes, Langer praised his pace unit, especially singling out young fast bowlers Mohsin Khan and Prince Yadav. “Last year our numbers were incredible and we were ruing the fact that a lot of our bowlers were injured or coming back from injury or not quite fit.

“This year our bowlers have been a real credit. I think Mohsin Khan, again outstanding. Prince Yadav, I think they’re both two players who will play for India. No question in my mind they’ll both play for India,” he added.

On whether the franchise had any say in pitch preparation, Langer reiterated his admiration for the surface, and added that the onus was on the LSG batters to adapt to conditions on offer.

“No, no, no. Their groundsmen here: I’ve said for the last couple of years this is one of the best pitches in India. You see it’s a big outfield and a big ground. It’s a brilliant one bat to bat on… it’s a great cricket wicket actually and we just need to adapt to it better.

“We get to play a bit here but this is, we’ve got a very good groundsman. We’ve got a great cricket pitch. Every game’s exciting cricket. We’ve just been on the wrong side of it so far,” he concluded.

–IANS

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