Big blow! Anrich Nortje exits LSG mid-season due to injury setback

The Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) have suffered a massive blow as the South Africa National Cricket Team express pacer Anrich Nortje has left the camp midway through the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026.

Bharat Arun, the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) bowling coach, has revealed that the Proteas paceman, Anrich Nortje, has sustained an injury and has left the team.

Lucknow Super Giants have won two of their matches and four matches have ended in defeat. They are currently 9th in the IPL 2026 points table due to their poor run-rate. The Super Giants would look to bounce back under Rishabh Pant's leadership.

'Anrich Nortje was injured and has gone back' - Bharat Arun

Speaking to TOI, Bharat Arun was asked how he is managing the overseas vs Indian bowlers balance. Responding to this, Arun stated that the LSG bowling unit mostly consists of local Indian players and their only overseas star, Anrich Nortje, has suffered an injury.

"Our bowling attack is predominantly Indian. In fact, apart from Anrich Nortje, who was injured and has gone back, we haven’t really had an overseas presence in the bowling group. But this is a very exciting Indian bowling unit, and we have a lot of belief in them,” Arun told TOI.

Anrich Nortje is the second overseas player from LSG to be ruled out

After Wanindu Hasaranga the Sri Lankan leg spinner was also ruled out due to an injury, the LSG camp was without a spinner and had to suffice with Digvesh Rathi and M Siddharth in their camp.

After Hasaranga was ruled out, Anrich Nortje is now the second player from overseas to be ruled out from the LSG camp. Nortje has just played one game this season and has had a wicketless outing with 39 runs.

The South African pacer Nortje returned for his national side and then returned to the IPL after he was bought for a cost of INR 2 crores.

Lucknow Super Giants' pacers have dominated in this IPL 2026

The Lucknow Super Giants started their season with two losses but the pacers deck was excellent as Mohammed Shami picked wickets and was very economical in the powerplay from the very first game.

On the other hand, another find for them this season has been Prince Yadav the pacer who picked 11 wickets from 6 games and has bowled at an economy of under 7 in matches where the opposition has scored 250+ runs.

Mohsin Khan remains another highlight for them in this season who was very economical against DC in their first game and Avesh Khan has been used widely by Rishabh Pant in the middle-overs. Shami and Prince start the proceedings while ending it as well, while Avesh continues in the middle overs.

Lastly speaking of Mayank Yadav, the pacer is yet to play a game but he is still in the mix for LSG and now with Nortje no longer available, he is the only option if LSG needs to cater to raw pace and some thick bouncers, something which lacked during their last game against PBKS.

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