LSG mentor Zaheer Khan feels not impressed with the pitch at home ground

Zaheer Khan felt frustrated with Lucknow’s pitch for snatching home advantage during a match against PBKS in IPL 2025.

Zaheer Khan expressed frustration about the pitch condition in Lucknow as he mentors Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in IPL. He wasn’t impressed with the pitch dished out for his team against Punjab Kings (PBKS) at Lucknow’s Ekana Stadium.

Zaheer Khan partially blames the curator for LSG’s defeat against PBKS.

On Tuesday, PBKS defeated LSG at their home ground at Ekana Stadium in Lucknow. LSG suffered their second defeat of the IPL season, losing to PBKS by 8 wickets. LSG mentor Zaheer Khan partially blamed the curator for the defeat. LSG was hopeful for a more spin-friendly surface, but pacers ruled the roost. During the press conference, Zaheer said, “What was a little disappointing for me here. Considering it’s a home game and in IPL you’ve seen how teams have looked at taking a little bit of home advantage, from that point of view you’ve seen the curator is not really thinking that it’s a home game. I think maybe it looked like, you know, it was Punjab curator out here.” He added, “So that’s something which we will figure. It’s a new set-up for me, but I hope this is the first and the last game when it comes to that. Because you are disappointing the Lucknow fans as well. They’ve come up with so much expectations of winning the first home game here.”

Zaheer Khan says he is not using the pitch as an excuse for the defeat.

Zaheer further said that he is not using the pitch as an excuse for the defeat. However, he insisted that home pitches must give the team some incentive. He added, “As a team, we are confident. We accept that we’ve lost the game, and we have got to do whatever it takes to make that impact in the home leg. We still have six more games to go here, and this team has shown in the season so far, whatever little cricket is played, that we have the right outlook and the mindset to look at the IPL. What you can expect is innovation, out-of-the-box thinking, the fight, the hunger, and that sums us up as a team.”