Steyn Says 'Criminal,' Sehwag Says 'Brainless' — LSG's Entire Think-Tank Under Siege

Criminal. Brainless. Not from fans on social media. Not from anonymous trolls. From Dale Steyn — 439 Test wickets, one of the greatest fast bowlers to have ever lived — and Virender Sehwag — 8,586 Test runs, the most destructive opener India has ever produced. Both spoke on Star Sports within hours of LSG's Super Over humiliation against KKR on Saturday night, and both reached for words that don't normally feature in polite cricket analysis.

When legends of that calibre use that kind of language, it's not hot-take punditry. It's a diagnosis.

Let's be precise about what happened. Sunil Narine ran in with the ball in the Super Over. Nicholas Pooran — the man LSG chose to face it — was bowled first ball. Not caught on the boundary trying to launch one. Not run out in a mix-up. Bowled. Clean. On the first delivery. Aiden Markram followed for a duck too. LSG made 1/2 — the lowest Super Over total in IPL history.

Then Rinku Singh walked out, drove Prince Yadav's first ball through cover for four, and that was that. Match over. KKR wins. One ball.

This is not new information about Pooran and Super Overs. He was bowled for a duck in a Super Over against GT in 2023. Dismissed for a duck in a Super Over against RCB in 2024. And now bowled for a duck in a Super Over against KKR in 2026. Three Super Overs. Three zeros. The sample size is small, but the pattern is deafening.

Those two numbers tell the entire story. In IPL 2025, Nicholas Pooran struck at 196.25 — an absurd, franchise-defining rate that justified every rupee of his ₹21 crore retention. He was the most dangerous middle-order bat in the tournament. He was the reason LSG could chase anything.

In IPL 2026, that same player is striking at 80. Not 180. Not 120. Eighty. Among batters who have faced at least 50 balls this season, that is dead last. Behind Abdul Samad at 111. Behind Ruturaj Gaikwad at 112. Behind everyone. His last six scores read 9, 1, 19, 13, 1, 8. His highest score is 19. His dot-ball percentage is 58%.

₹41 lakh per run. That's what Pooran's IPL 2026 season costs per scoring shot. For context, you could buy a luxury car for what he earns every time he nudges one to mid-on.

But the Super Over wasn't even Sehwag's primary gripe. What really set him off was the toss. LSG won the toss against KKR and chose to bowl first. Again. Despite their batting collapses being the defining feature of their season. Despite losing four of their six chases this season.

Sehwag's most cutting line wasn't about Pooran or the toss. It was about the people in the dugout. He listed them by name. Kane Williamson — strategic advisor. Justin Langer — head coach. Tom Moody — Director of Cricket. Rishabh Pant — captain. And then the question: "Do their brains not work?"

It's a fair question. LSG might have the most stacked think-tank in IPL history. Williamson has captained New Zealand in a World Test Championship final. Langer coached Australia to a T20 World Cup. Moody has decades of international coaching experience. Pant has captained India. Between them, they've seen every situation cricket can throw at you.

And yet, when the moment came — 155 apiece, Super Over, season on the line — they sent out the one batter in their squad with the worst form AND the worst Super Over record. Not Mitch Marsh, who'd batted well all tournament. Not Pant himself. Not Ayush Badoni, who Sehwag specifically named as his pick. They chose the man averaging 8.5 this season with a 0% Super Over success rate.

Here's what makes this LSG situation uniquely absurd. Most struggling franchises have an obvious scapegoat — the captain, the coach, the one player dragging the team down. LSG has all three, plus two more advisors in the room, plus an owner in Sanjiv Goenka who has publicly lost his temper at his own captain before. The talent in the dugout is world-class. The results are bottom-of-the-table.

When Steyn calls a decision "criminal" and Sehwag questions whether the coaching staff has functioning brains, they're not being controversial. They're saying what every analyst watching this season has been thinking: Lucknow's problem isn't personnel. It's that nobody in a room full of cricket geniuses is willing to make — or overrule — the obvious call.

Pooran will bat again. LSG will lose another toss and choose to chase again. And the smartest dugout in the IPL will keep doing the same thing, expecting a different result. That's not cricket strategy. That's insanity with a ₹21 crore price tag.