IPL 2024: Lucknow Super Giants to take on Punjab Kings in Lucknow: LSG opt to bat
In IPL Cricket, Lucknow Super Giants will take on Punjab Kings at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium in Lucknow. The match will begin at 7.30 PM. Lucknow Super Giants have won the toss and have opted to bat.
It’s still early days in IPL 2024 and therefore, not a time for teams to take their position on the points table too seriously. Lucknow Super Giants find themselves at the bottom, although they’ve just played the solitary game in which they endured a narrow defeat to Rajasthan Royals. Meanwhile, Punjab Kings started the tournament with a morale-boosting win over Delhi Capitals but then snatched defeat from the jaws of victory against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
KL Rahul’s batting position was the major talking point for LSG pre-season, only for the skipper to walk out at his favourite opening spot. The tempo to his innings also was quite similar to what we’ve been used to from the Karnataka batter but he did look in good touch as the innings progressed. Whether he should continue to bat at the top or move down the order and let a more free-spirited batter take the opening spot continues to be up for debate.
LSG have a lot of power in their ranks with the likes of Nicholas Pooran, Marcus Stoinis and Quinton de Kock but the first two continue to be underused. It is a point that they will need to address sooner than later. For Punjab, both games have gone largely to plan, except for the death bowling against RCB which cost Shikhar Dhawan’s men a precious win. Compared to previous seasons, PBKS do have a much stronger bowling unit that has most bases covered.
However, Harshal Patel’s patchy form will be a concern, given that he is their designated death bowler. The batting continues to be Punjab’s strong suite with a plethora of high-intent powerhitters in their line-up.
Sqauds:
Lucknow Super Giants Squad: Quinton de Kock, KL Rahul(w/c), Devdutt Padikkal, Ayush Badoni, Deepak Hooda, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan, Naveen-ul-Haq, Yash Thakur, Mayank Yadav, Prerak Mankad, Krishnappa Gowtham, Amit Mishra, David Willey, Kyle Mayers, Ashton Turner, Shivam Mavi, Manimaran Siddharth, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Arshad Khan, Shamar Joseph, Arshin Kulkarni
Punjab Kings Squad: Shikhar Dhawan(c), Jonny Bairstow, Prabhsimran Singh, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Jitesh Sharma(w), Shashank Singh, Harpreet Brar, Harshal Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh, Rilee Rossouw, Tanay Thyagarajan, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Chris Woakes, Rishi Dhawan, Sikandar Raza, Ashutosh Sharma, Atharva Taide, Nathan Ellis, Shivam Singh, Prince Choudhary, Vishwanath Singh
