Hyderabad, April 5 Lucknow Super Giants won the toss and chose to bowl against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in the first match of Sunday’s double-header.
Both SRH and LSG are looking for stability early in the season, although their concerns differ. SRH has had mixed results so far, suffering a heavy loss to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), but bounced back with a more assured win against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
On the other hand, LSG came into this match after a disappointing loss to Delhi Capitals, where their batting lineup and selection decisions were under scrutiny. Promoting Rishabh Pant to the top order did not pay off, and the middle order struggled after early wickets, leaving them with just 141 on the board. With little room for error, LSG’s bowlers couldn’t apply enough pressure.
Heading into this game, LSG must decide whether to stick with their altered batting lineup or revert to a more stable approach to regain their balance and put up a stronger performance.
Winning the toss, LSG captain Rishabh Pant said, “The pitch is good, let them bat first, and we will put them under pressure in the second innings. It’s not a new challenge, but this is one team that can hurt us. It looks like a good pitch, but there’s something in it, the ball might stick after the first 6 overs. Just one change, Manimaran Siddarth is in, Nortje is out.”
Meanwhile, SRH captain Ishan Kishan said, "Very happy, always good to be playing in front of the home crowd. Two changes - Livingstone and Harshal Patel come in. Harshal has always done well here, Livi will give us some off-spin. Decision-making is the most important, try well and execute your plans. It's important to get two points, but we need to be calm and take one match at a time.”
Playing XIs:
LSG: Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, Rishabh Pant (c & wk), M. Siddharth, Nicholas Pooran, Abdul Samad, Mukul Choudhary, Avesh Khan, Mohammad Shami, Digvesh Rathi, Prince Yadav
Impact Substitutes: Ayush Badoni, Matthew Breetzke, Shahbaz Ahmed, Anrich Nortje, Himmat Singh.
SRH: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (c & wk), Heinrich Klaasen, Liam Livingstone, Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Shivang Kumar, Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat
Impact Substitutes: Eshan Malinga, Salil Arora, David Payne, Shivam Mavi and Zeeshan Ansari.
