Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) have begun their preparations for the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL 2026) season in a bid to come back stronger after a disappointing last edition where they finished seventh in the points table. To do so, the Sanjiv Goenka-owned franchise will be sending their bowlers overseas to South Africa during the SA20 2026 season, which begins on Boxing Day (December 26), to train with LSG’s sister franchise Durban’s Super Giants.
Notably, the Lucknow team had also gotten the clearance from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the same. Pacers such as Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan, including new recruit Naman Tiwari are among the list of names who will be going to the Rainbow nation, Cricbuzz can confirm.
For the unversed, five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) have already done something similar last season when they sent young spinner Vignesh Puthur to practice with MI Cape Town.
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LSG have a big pool of Indian and domestic bowlers, who pack tremendous promise. However, unfortunately for the franchise, most of their fast bowlers have been very injury-prone and haven’t been utilised properly yet. The likes of Mayank Yadav, Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan and Akash Singh have all undergone bouts of injury in the recent past.
While a strong depth of pacers were already in the side since last season, Lucknow added more fast bowling talent ahead of IPL 2026 too after releasing Shamar Joseph, Akash Deep and Shardul Thakur (traded to MI). They traded in veteran pacer Mohammed Shami from Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Arjun Tendulkar from MI while securing another raw pacer in Naman Tiwari at the IPL 2026 Auction. Among spinners too, LSG have Digvesh Rathi, M Siddharth, Shahbaz Ahmed.
Getting their bowlers practice in SA20 can thus be a big boost for the next season, especially since they will hone their skills opposite some of the top players who also play in the IPL while getting exposed to the attacking T20 mindset and figuring out their tricks and variations before new IPL season kickstarts.
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