Lucknow Super Giants remain the only active IPL side never to reach a final
Lucknow's IPL franchise cost its owners ₹7,090 crore in 2021, roughly US$830 million, and in its first season it could not play a single match at home. Two playoff runs followed, then two seventh-place finishes, leaving the Super Giants as the only current team still waiting for a final.
When the league invited bids for two new franchises in August 2021, 22 companies showed interest, but the steep base price trimmed the serious contenders to about six. The RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group won Lucknow, while the other slot became Gujarat Titans. A public naming contest produced Lucknow Super Giants in January 2022, a brand echoed in the owners' other teams, including a South African side in Durban and the football division of Mohun Bagan.
The first squad came together at the February 2022 mega auction, with the Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis, English quick Mark Wood, South African keeper Quinton de Kock and Indian opener KL Rahul among the big names. Rahul was made captain, the former Zimbabwe batter Andy Flower head coach and Gautam Gambhir mentor. Because of pandemic restrictions, every league match that year was staged in Maharashtra rather than at the Ekana Cricket Stadium; the team finally played at home in 2023.
Results started brightly. The side finished third in both 2022 and 2023 but went out in the eliminator each time, first to Royal Challengers Bangalore and then to Mumbai Indians. In 2024 it won 7 of 14 games and slipped to seventh, repeating that finish in 2025.
A reset followed. The club held on to five players, among them the fast bowler Mayank Yadav, spinner Ravi Bishnoi and West Indian hitter Nicholas Pooran, alongside Ayush Badoni and Mohsin Khan, while Rahul, Stoinis and de Kock departed, and the franchise made Rishabh Pant the most expensive buy of the auction at ₹27 crore, naming him captain, with Zaheer Khan as mentor. As of 2026 Justin Langer coaches the team, which unveiled a new emblem on February 24, 2026, combining the mythical bird Garuda, a crown and an elephant. Off the field it has grown quickly, with 5.1 million social media followers by April 2025.
Source: Lucknow Super Giants
