The LSG has struggled on its home surface, losing all three matches here. It has gone down by six and seven wickets to Delhi Capitals and Gujarat Titans respectively, before suffering a 40-run defeat to Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The LSG lost six of its eight matches here last season, including five in a row. Overall, it has managed just nine wins from 25 games at the venue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pitch here is very different than in most of India. It\u2019s a brilliant cricket pitch. You see pace and bounce, and we just haven\u2019t quite adjusted to it,\u201d Langer said at the post-match press conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we\u2019d started off, we\u2019d been bowling quite well in it. We bowled well in the first game, but we\u2019re just not adjusting to the extra pace and bounce. We saw that we\u2019ve been out to the short ball a number of times, our batters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see a lot of the wickets in India where the ball doesn\u2019t bounce very high. This is like playing at the WACA. There\u2019s real pace and bounce.You\u2019re seeing some really interesting cricket being played here,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Despite boasting a formidable batting line-up featuring skipper Rishabh Pant, Australia\u2019s Mitchell Marsh, South Africa T20 captain Aiden Markram and the flamboyant Nicholas Pooran, LSG has struggled to put up competitive totals at home, managing 141, 164 for 8 and 119 in three games.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur batting\u2019s just not quite clicking, and who would have thought at the start of the season our batting wouldn\u2019t click with the calibre of players we\u2019ve got? We could never have read that, so we\u2019re working hard on it.\u201d The former Australia coach, however, had words of praise for the bowling unit, predicting a bright future for young pacers Prince Yadav and Mohsin Khan.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year our bowlers have been a real credit. I think Mohsin Khan, again outstanding. Prince Yadav, I think they\u2019re both two players who will play for India. No question in my mind they\u2019ll both play for India.\u201d On whether the franchise had any say in pitch preparation, Langer dismissed the notion.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, no, no. Their groundsmen here: I\u2019ve said for the last couple of years this is one of the best pitches in India.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s a big ground. It\u2019s a brilliant bat… it\u2019s a great cricket wicket actually and we just need to adapt to it better.\u201d Meanwhile, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, who struck an unbeaten 43 and picked up a wicket to guide Rajasthan to victory, said the surface was far from an ideal T20 wicket.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wicket wasn\u2019t very easy.There was grass, it was a red-soil wicket, so there was bounce as well. Their four fast bowlers were making it swing and seam alongside good pace.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say it was ideally a T20 wicket, you couldn\u2019t just go and swing at it and get runs. Fast bowlers from both teams would have enjoyed that they could bounce and seam it,\u201d Jadeja said.<\/p>\n
However, the seasoned all-rounder appreciated the consistency of the pitch across both the innings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I liked was that the wicket was equal for both. It\u2019s not like how it is sometimes, when batters first get a slow, seaming wicket and then nothing happens in the second innings. Both teams lost two-three wickets in the Powerplay itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a challenging T20 match, not the typical one with fireworks from both sides. It challenges you mentally, and skill-wise you have to be sharp,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Published on Apr 23, 2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n