Following the loss endured at the hands of RCB, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) are gearing up for a challenging assignment in their next fixture. The side will host MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, in Lucknow, on Wednesday, May 3.
Speaking about their head-to-head records, the two teams have contested in just two games thus far in the top-tier league. While LSG won the first match while MS Dhoni and Co. emerged victorious in the most recent outing on April 3.
Both LSG and CSK have identical points with five wins and four losses in nine outings in the IPL 2023, however, what separates them is their Net Run Rate (NRR). While LSG are placed third on the points table with 0.639, CSK are just below them in fourth place with a NRR of 0.329. Both sides will be gunning to obtain results in their favour and climb up the table. Hence, in the race to stay in the top four spots, LSG will aim to win this encounter by fielding their best possible playing XI against CSK.
Here’s Lucknow Super Giants’ predicted XI against Chennai Super Kings:
Openers: Quinton de Kock (wk), Kyle Mayers
Kyle Mayers. (Photo Source: BCCI/IPL)
LSG have been handed with a major blow as regular skipper KL Rahul went down injured while fielding and then hobbled off the field during the match against RCB. While an official update is awaited from the franchise, it is understood that the skipper hurt his hip flexor as stated by the stand-in captain Krunal Pandya in the post-match presentation of the clash.
Taking into account Rahul’s injury, the think tank could finally use the services of keeper-batter Quinton de Kock against CSK. The Southpaw will be gunning to ply his trade for the franchise and swiftly hit the ground running. de Kock relished a fabulous 2022 season with the franchise, as he got a humongous 508 runs in his 15 appearances with his best knock being an unbeaten 140 runs.
Kyle Mayers hammered 54 off mere 24 balls, with seven fours and four sixes against Punjab, but failed to demonstrate his explosive hitting prowess against RCB. The Caribbean hitter succumbed to a second-ball duck upon which LSG slowly began losing the plot in the previous game.
The batting unit will need to play delicately considering the turning wicket in Lucknow. Moreover, the CSK spinners will be eager to make use of the pitch conditions and get breakthroughs. Therefore, LSG will need to make plans to counter-attack the visiting team.
Middle Order: Ayush Badoni, Deepak Hooda
Ayush Badoni. (Photo Source: BCCI/IPL)
Badoni scored a blazing knock against Punjab as he got 43 off just 24 balls, however, he failed to maintain consistency as he could only score four runs off 11 balls against RCB. The 23-year-old batter will be raring to display his batting exploits against CSK and provide the crucial runs, playing in the middle-order.
Considering that de Kock joins the setup, explosive hitter, Nicholas Pooran, could warm the bench in the forthcoming match. With this, Deepak Hooda will need to step up and get the vital runs for his side. The batter has failed to inject momentum in any of the matches and needs to up the ante in the forthcoming games.
All-rounders: Marcus Stoinis, Krunal Pandya (c), Krishnappa Gowtham
Marcus Stoinis. (Photo Source: IPL/BCCI)
After slamming 72 runs off 40 balls against Punjab, Marcus Stoinis had an evening to forget against RCB. The Aussie all-rounder got just one over and leaked 11 runs and got just 13 runs off 19 balls with the bat during the chase.
On the other hand, Krunal Pandya and Krishnappa Gowtham proved to be instrumental with the ball in the first innings. While Krunal restricted the rival batting unit to just 21 runs in his four overs, Gowtham gave away mere 10 runs and got a scalp in his two overs.
However, Gowtham and Krunal failed to create any kind of impact with the bat coming in the middle order, getting scores of 23 and 14 runs, respectively. In any case, the all-rounders will need to improve and produce noteworthy performances in the following game.
Bowlers: Naveen-ul-Haq, Amit Mishra, Ravi Bishnoi, Yash Thakur
Naveen ul Haq (Photo Source; LSG/Twitter)
In the previous match against Royal Challengers Bangalore, the bowling unit operated in tandem to get the breakthroughs and restricted the rival team to a paltry total. It is worth mentioning that, the slower wicket on offer in Lucknow aided the bowlers thereby helping them restrict the rival batting unit from posting a big total on the board.
As the forthcoming match will be played in Lucknow, the think tank will likely field two spinners in the form of Amit Mishra and Ravi Bishnoi and pacers such as Yash Thakur and Naveen-ul-Haq. In the last outing, Naveen did not use much pace, instead kept it slow in order to use the conditions of the pitch to his advantage.
He relished impressive bowling figures as he gave mere 30 runs in his four overs with an economy of 7.50 and two wickets to his name. Likewise, Yash Thakur in his two overs gave just 12 runs but did not get a wicket to his account.
Spinners enjoyed their time out in the middle against RCB as Amit Mishra and Ravi Bishnoi got four wickets between them. While Bishnoi concluded with an economy of 5.25 in his four overs, Amit gave away 21 runs in his three. The bowling unit will look to replicate a similar performance in the forthcoming match against CSK.
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) Probable Playing 11:
Quinton de Kock (wk), Kyle Mayers, Ayush Badoni, Deepak Hooda, Marcus Stoinis, Krunal Pandya, Krishnappa Gowtham, Ravi Bishnoi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Amit Mishra, Yash Thakur
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) Probable Impact Players:
Yudhvir Singh Charak, Mohsin Khan, Prerak Mankad, Avesh Khan, Nicholas Pooran