Zaheer Khan slams curator after loss against Punjab Kings, says pitch favored visitors more than home team

After KKR and CSK, Lucknow Super Giants bowling mentor Zaheer Khan was left frustrated by the home curator. LSG suffered an eight-wicket loss against Punjab Kings while playing at home in Lucknow on Tuesday.

The home team could only manage a sub-par score of 171 runs on the board after they were put into bat by Shreyas Iyer. The hosts were reduced to 35-3 as they could not get the impetus in their batting innings after losing wickets at regular intervals.

Khan said it looked like the Punjab curator prepared the pitch after the loss.

“What was a little disappointing for me here, considering it’s a home game…”Zaheer said. “In IPL, you’ve seen how teams have looked at taking a little bit of home advantage, you know, so yeah, from that point of view, you’ve seen the curator is not really thinking that it’s a home game, you know. I think maybe it looked like, you know, it was Punjab curator out here.

“That’s something which we’ll figure out. It’s a new setup for me also here. But I hope that 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.

“As a team, we are confident, you know, we accept that we’ve lost the game, and we’re going to do whatever it takes to make that impact in the home leg. We still have six more games to go here.”

LSG captain Rishabh Pant said they wanted to play on a slow pitch but it wasn’t to be the case.

Adding further, Zaheer said, “See, we will go by what the curator says, no?,” Not looking at it as an excuse. We have seen last season also, it’s not that batters haven’t had issues here and bowers haven’t been on a roll. Those things happen in cricket. But in terms of support for the home team, everyone must be aware that this is our team that’s playing in Lucknow and what we can do to ensure a victory. Everyone’s contribution is necessary. That said, we will find a way to win.”

LSG will next take on Mumbai Indians at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow on Friday.