The Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) will be in action against the defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on May 7. LSG will be looking to get back to winning ways as their last game against CSK was abandoned due to rain after suffering a defeat to RCB in a low-scoring game in Lucknow in the game before. The KL Rahul-led team have won five and lost four of their ten games so far with eleven points to their name.
LSG beat DC comfortably in their opening game of the season, but lost to CSK in a close encounter in the reverse fixture. LSG then picked up two consecutive wins against SRH and RCB in Bangalore. LSG lost a close encounter to PBKS by 2 wickets in a final-over finish in Lucknow.
LSG also bounced back to beat RR in Jaipur. But they lost to GT in Lucknow as they could not chase down a low score in the reverse fixture at home. LSG then beat PBKS in Mohali as they scored the second-highest IPL score ever. LSG lost to RCB by 18 runs as the batters failed to chase down the low target on a difficult pitch in an ill-tempered game as players clashed during and after the match. Their game against CSK was abandoned due to rain with LSG in a tough spot at 125/7 with four balls remaining in their innings. Ayush Badoni was the lone warrior with 59* for the LSG.
Kyle Mayers has scored 311 runs this season with four half-centuries. Nicholas Pooran and Marcus Stoinis have scored 245 and 235 runs respectively. Quinton de Kock has not played this season at all as Mayers has been in great form at the top of the order. Badoni and Pandya have also contributed well to the team’s batting efforts so far.
Deepak Hooda has been in poor form this season and lost his place in the team against CSK. He has scored only 53 runs so far this season, whereas he scored over 400 runs in IPL 2022.
KL Rahul will miss the rest of the tournament after picking up an injury against RCB. Rahul had scored 274 runs for the team this season before his injury. Krunal Pandya will lead the side in Rahul’s absence.
The bowlers have worked well as a unit so far this season. Mark Wood picked eleven wickets in the four games he played at the start of the league. Ravi Bishnoi has picked 12 wickets so far. Avesh Khan and Krunal Pandya have both picked up six wickets each. Amit Mishra and Marcus Stoinis have chipped in with eleven wickets between them as well. Wood has been recently replaced by Naveen-ul-Haq in the playing eleven. The Afghan pacer has picked up 7 wickets in four games at an economy of six.
Left-arm pacer Mohsin Khan made his return to the team against CSK having missed action thus far due to a shoulder injury. The 24-year-old finished the 2022 season with 14 wickets from just nine matches and could play an important role for the team in the remaining games of the season. Alongside Mohsin, LSG have a number of promising young domestic seam bowlers in their squad with Avesh Khan, Yash Thakur and Yudhvir Singh all impressing this season. Unfortunately, Jaydev Unadkat has been ruled out for the rest of the tournament with a shoulder injury.
LSG are expected to be unchanged for the game with GT, with Vohra retaining his place in the team instead of Hooda. Yudhvir Singh, Avesh Khan, Prerak Mankad and Deepak Hooda, Yash Thakur could be Impact player options for LSG.
LSG’s predicted XI vs GT:
Openers: Manan Vohra, Kyle Mayers.
Middle Order: Nicholas Pooran (wk), K Gowtham, Ayush Badoni.
All-Rounders: Krunal Pandya (c), Marcus Stoinis.
Bowlers: Naveen-ul-Haq, Mohsin Khan, Amit Mishra, Ravi Bishnoi.
Impact Player: Yudhvir Singh, Avesh Khan, Prerak Mankad and Deepak Hooda, Yash Thakur are LSG’s Impact Player options.
