Zaheer Khan has always been known to speak his mind.

On Tuesday, the Lucknow Super Giants mentor made it clear that he wasn’t happy with the wicket at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium.

Zaheer said it seemed the opposition had brought their own curator to prepare the pitch following Lucknow’s eight-wicket loss to Punjab Kings with 22 balls remaining.

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

“So that’s something which we will figure. It’s a new set-up also for me, but I hope this is the first and the last game when it comes to that... you are disappointing the Lucknow fans as well. They’ve come with so much expectations of winning the first home game here.”

Intense chat

LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka is in the eye of another storm after what appeared to be an intense discussion with captain Rishabh Pant following their loss to the Kings.

Goenka wasn’t available for comment but sources close to him dismissed any talk of dissent.

“It was a normal discussion and too much is being made out of it. We shouldn’t go by what social media is saying. Pant has always maintained that he shares a cordial relation with the team management,” the source maintained.

Their discussion revived memories of Goenka’s animated on-field chat with KL Rahul last season after another disappointing finish. LSG did not retain Rahul and acquired Pant for ₹27 crore at the last auction.

Rahul later admitted that it wasn’t the best thing to be part of and that all the teammates reacted “shockingly.”

“When this happened, it was just a big shock for all of us... Whatever happened on the field after the game wasn’t the nicest thing to be a part of,” Rahul said on Star Sports six months later.