After just one season, the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) have split from their team coach Zaheer Khan ahead of the 2026 Indian Premier League. The former Indian bowler, who joined the team in August 2024, had a brief tenure before the decision was confirmed on Thursday.
The LSG has not qualified in the last two editions, despite making the playoffs in their first two seasons in 2022 and 2023. LSG finished sixth in the IPL 2025 standings with just six victories from 14 games under new captain Rishabh Pant. The team lost steam in the second half and only won once in their last six games, despite having a strong start with five victories in their first eight games.
The head coach and franchise owner did not agree with Zaheer Khan approach to strategy and planning.
According to rumours, a conflict of vision was the main cause of Zaheer Khan departure. His planning and strategy methods were incompatible with those of franchise owner Sanjiv Goenka and head coach Justin Langer. Zaheer was claimed to be annoyed by what he saw as crowded thinking in the management and support personnel, despite having a close relationship with captain Rishabh Pant.
Following Gautam Gambhir’s departure from LSG in 2023 to rejoin the Kolkata Knight Riders and then take over as India’s head coach, the former pacer took over scouting, planning, and general strategy at the start of his term. LSG anticipated that Zaheer Khan would offer stability and guidance based on his experience with the Mumbai Indians from 2018 to 2022, when he was instrumental in assembling potent teams.
Changing the batting order to accommodate Pant and international players like Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, and Nicholas Pooran was one of his significant achievements. In order to give Pant more freedom and lessen the load on Pooran, Zaheer Khan pushed for Marsh and Markram to open. With Pooran having one of his best seasons and Marsh finishing as the fifth-highest run scorer of the 2025 Indian Premier League, the transfer worked. However, LSG’s entire campaign did not live up to expectations, especially at their home stadium, Ekana Stadium in Lucknow, where they only won two of eight games.
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