Zaheer Khan expressed disappointment over the Ekana Stadium pitch, stating that it did not offer Lucknow Super Giants any home advantage in their IPL 2025 match against Punjab Kings.
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) mentor Zaheer Khan has raised concerns over the pitch at Ekana Cricket Stadium after his team’s heavy defeat to Punjab Kings (PBKS) in their first home match of IPL 2025. The former Indian pacer criticized the pitch curator, suggesting that the conditions favored the visiting team rather than the hosts.
LSG struggled early in their innings, losing three wickets in the Powerplay before managing to post 171 runs. However, PBKS chased down the target with ease, winning in just 16.2 overs. Addressing the media after the match, Zaheer expressed his dissatisfaction with the playing surface.
“What was a little disappointing for me here, considering it’s a home game, and you know, in IPL you’ve seen how teams have looked at taking a little bit of home advantage, you know,” Zaheer said.
“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 it was Punjab curator out here,” Zaheer added.
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Zaheer’s remarks came after LSG captain Rishabh Pant admitted that the team was still assessing home conditions. The wicketkeeper-batter acknowledged that it was a learning curve for him and the squad.
“So, that’s (pitch) something which we’ll figure out. It’s a new setup also for me 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,” Zaheer said.
“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,” he added.
Despite LSG losing two of their three games and dropping to the sixth spot on the points table, Zaheer remains optimistic about the team’s prospects. “This is the third game of the season, you know, so we’ve been very vocal about how the team is looking at this season. So, that’s something which is very important for us as a group. It’s a very process-oriented setup, not so much result-oriented,” he explained.
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