According to sources, the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) are planning to bid farewell to their guru Zaheer Khan before the 2026 Indian Premier League (IPL). Following Morne Morkel joining India’s support staff, Zaheer took over as LSG’s bowling coach and mentor, succeeding Gautam Gambhir.
Super Giants reached the playoffs in IPL 2022 and 2023. It is the first two seasons of theirs in the league. Nevertheless, LSG ended at the bottom of the table in IPL 2024 and 2025.
In the IPL 2025 mega-auction held prior to this season, LSG paid a record INR 27 crore to obtain Rishabh Pant’s services. KL Rahul was replaced as the team’s captain by the standout batsman-wicketkeeper. But the Lucknow-based franchise’s luck remained unchanged. They finished the IPL 2025 with six victories and eight losses from 14 games due to their erratic play.
“LSG is set to part ways with Zaheer Khan, and the new mentor will be given a bigger role to monitor RPSG Group’s other franchises,” a source tracking the development confirmed to TimesofIndia.com.
According to the same story, LSG’s owner, Sanjiv Goenka, who is now in the UK for The Hundred, will name a Director of Cricket to oversee the year-round growth of the company’s other teams, the Manchester Originals in The Hundred and the Durban Super Giants in the SA20.
Zaheer Khan first worked as the Director of Cricket for the Mumbai Indians (MI) team from 2018 to 2022 before moving on to become the Head of Global Development. Under Rohit Sharma’s leadership, Mumbai won the championship in 2019 and 2020 throughout his term.
Bharat Arun joined LSG as their new bowling coach two weeks ago. Before joining the three-time champion Kolkata Knight Riders in a similar capacity, the 62-year-old had a wealth of experience coaching bowling for the Indian side.
