Mayank Yadav joins Lucknow Super Giants in major boost for franchise in IPL 2025

In a major boost for the Lucknow Super Giants, tearaway pacer Mayank Yadav has joined the team for the Indian Premier League 2025. Mayank, who hogged the limelight for his express pace deliveries in IPL 2024, was on the mend due to his injuries. 

Mayank was recovering from a back injury and had been out of action since October 2024, when he made his India debut and played in three T20Is against Bangladesh. He went to the BCCI's Centre of Excellence for his recovery, but had also picked up a toe injury ahead of LSG's tournament opener against Delhi Capitals on March 24. 

In a video shared by the LSG franchise, Mayank was seen getting out of his car and joining the team hotel. The franchise captioned the video with, "Mayank Yadav is back (with thunderbolt emojis in between)."

There is no update on when the 22-year-old pacer will be available for the Super Giants, however, reports confirmed that he is likely to feature in LSG's next match against the Rajasthan Royals on Saturday, April 19. 

Lucknow are in the mid-table scrum in IPL 2025 currently. They have four wins in seven matches and are placed fifth, just below the qualification spot. The Super Giants suffered defeat in their previous encounter to Chennai Super Kings at their home when the MS Dhoni-led team chased down a middling total of 167. 

Mayank's availability will give a further



boost to the LSG attack, which is close to being at full strength. They were missing Avesh Khan, Akash Deep at the start of the tournament and were dealt a blow when Mohsin Khan was ruled out of IPL 2025 before the tournament kicked off on March 23. 

Shardul Thakur was named Mohsin's replacement, and both Avesh and Akash have returned, featuring in their last five and three matches, respectively. 

Justin Langer, LSG's head coach, had opened up on Mayank's return nearly 12 days ago when he said that the pacer is '90-95%'. "What I do know is he's working very hard at the NCA, and I saw some video of him bowling yesterday [Thursday] and he was bowling at about 90 to 95%," Langer said at the press conference after his team's win over Mumbai Indians on April 4. "So Mayank's up and running, which is really great for Indian cricket, for IPL. We saw the impact he had last year. I don't think there's been a bowler in India who's bowled faster than Mayank Yadav. That's why there's so much talk about him."

"He's up, he's keen to get going. He bowled really well in Bangalore yesterday at the NCA. I think you have another couple of bowls and hopefully... NCA, to their credit, have obviously done a very good job because they've got Avesh Khan back for us, they've got our Akash Deep back for us. So we really appreciate the work they're doing to get the boys back playing and now hopefully Mayank as well," he added.