SRH vs LSG: KL Rahul faces open revolt from Naveen-ul-Haq despite supporting him in Virat Kohli fight

Naveen-ul-Haq wasn't happy at all with the kind of performance that the Lucknow Super Giants batting line-up along with KL Rahul put up against KKR last night. 

Not only did the LSG batters batted poorly but the bowling line-up, including Naveen-ul-Haq were taken to the cleaners by the in-form Kolkata batters. Sunil Narine led the charge with another fantastic 75+ knock at a strike rate of 207 with Phil Salt and Shreyas Iyer among others contributing to help KKR post a mammoth target of 236 on the board. 

What did Naveen-ul-Haq say? 

While speaking in the post-match press conference at the Ekana stadium, Naveen-ul-Haq wasn't critical about his performances but slammed the batting department. He is of the view that the wicket that was laid out yesterday was a tailor-made track for batters and was the best batting surface at Ekana that he has seen in IPL 2024 so far.

Naveen-ul-Haq wanted to convey that the target of 236 should have been chased down since the surface was much more favorable for the batters. The Afghanistan seamer stated that the intent was somehow missing in the LSG batting department and they didn't do the things that they had been doing during tricky run-chases. 

He then gave the example of how LSG were able to chase 211 during their away game against the Chennai Super Kings at the Chepauk stadium. But Naveen-ul-Haq did notice that the surface in the 2nd innings wasn't as similar and he thought that since there wasn't much for the bowlers, the batters should have done much more better.  

"The wicket was quite good. The amount of games that we have played so far here in Lucknow, I think this was the best wicket to bat on. But we didn't quite do the similar things that we did in the chases so far. In the game we played at Chepauk also we chased down the score but it didn't turn out to be (the same), they bowled well."

"The wicket wasn't like bad or anything I can say or was it stopping or gripping. Nothing worked their for the bowlers, they bowled well but we didn't quite bat well." - Naveen said during the press conference. 

Naveen opines on LSG team selection

Naveen-ul-Haq was also asked to shed light on the playing XI selection process of the Lucknow Super Giants and he had a brilliant response to it. The Afghani stated that neither he is the coach nor he is the captain of the team so he doesn't know about his selection, how can he reflect on the things that go behind the scenes? 

"Sir, neither am I the coach nor am I the captain. I'm a player. I don't know about my own selection what can I say about others? So I don't know what's going behind the scenes." - Naveen concluded. 

LSG must beat SRH in their next game for playoff hopes

Meanwhile, the Lucknow Super Giants have an imperative task in hand when they take on the Sunrisers Hyderabad in their next league stage match. LSG must beat the Orange army to keep their play-offs hopes alive in IPL 2024.