Justin Langer 'Blames' World Cup Selection For LSG's Failures, Throws Shade At KL Rahul
Justin Langer is the head coach of Lucknow Super Giants (X)
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) coach Justin Langer blames World Cup selections for the poor performance of LSG players in the final phase of the IPL group stage.
LSG finished the IPL 2024 season with an 18-run victory against the bottom-placed Mumbai Indians (MI). Despite a strong start to the season, LSG struggled in the latter stages and failed to qualify for the playoffs.
The humiliating loss against SRH broke the spirit of the team, leading to a reported conflict between team owner Sanjiv Goenka and LSG captain, KL Rahul.
Langer blames WC selection
Justin Langer suggested that LSG's intensity went down after India's T20 World Cup squads were announced. Langer seemed to be hinting at KL Rahul and Ravi Bishnoi, who were left out of the Indian squad.
"Since the World Cup selection, things seemed to change a little bit. We had a couple of poor games and it really cost us. We played really good cricket through April, but we fell away. It's been disappointing. We had a very good team, we missed a few bowlers due to injuries and that made difference," Justin Langer said at the post-match press conference"-Langer said.
KL Rahul expressed his disappointment on Instagram after not being selected. Instead, Sanju Samson was chosen over Rahul, and Yuzvendra Chahal was picked ahead of Bishnoi.
KL Rahul was snubbed from the team after his poor performance at the 2022 World Cup and hasn't played T20 for the Indian team since.
He hoped that a strong IPL performance could earn him a spot in the squad. But that didn't happened.