The Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) will be in action against the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the IPL 2023 at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on May 16. LSG still have their destiny in their own hands and will qualify for the playoffs if they win their remaining two games. Now led by Krunal Pandya after KL Rahul was ruled out for the season, LSG have won six and lost five of their twelve games so far with thirteen points to their name.
LSG beat DC comfortably in their opening game of the season, but lost to CSK in a close encounter. LSG then picked up two consecutive wins against SRH and RCB in Bangalore. LSG lost a close encounter to PBKS in a final over finish in Lucknow. LSG bounced back to beat RR in Jaipur. But lost to GT in Lucknow as they could not chase down a low score at home. LSG then beat PBKS in Mohali as they scored the second-highest IPL score ever. LSG lost to RCB 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. Then they lost to GT for the second time this season.
Last time out, Prerak Mankad made his mark with a crucial knock of 64* off 45 and impactful knocks from Marcus Stoinis (40 off 25) and Nicholas Pooran (44* off13) helped LSG to achieve a seven-wicket win after attacking cameos from Heinrich Klassen (47 off 29), Abdul Samad (37 off 25) and Anmolpreet Singh (36 off 27) had propelled SRH to a competitive 182/6.
Kyle Mayers has scored 361 runs this season with four half-centuries. Nicholas Pooran and Marcus Stoinis have scored 292 and 279 runs respectively. Ayush Badoni has also chipped in with 212 runs so far. Quinton de Kock has done well ever since coming into the team after Rahul’s injury. LSG have played an all-Indian bowling line-up to accommodate the four overseas batters with mixed results so far.
Deepak Hooda has been in woeful touch this season and Mankad is expected to continue in the team in his place after his half-century last game.
LSG have a number of promising young domestic seam bowlers in their squad with Avesh Khan, Yash Thakur and Yudhvir Singh and Mohsin Khan all vying for the starting spots in the team. This has enabled LSG to reinforce their batting with four overseas batters after KL Rahul’s injury and they are expected to continue with the same combination for the upcoming games.
Ravi Bishnoi has picked 12 wickets so far. Avesh Khan and Krunal Pandya have picked up sixteen wickets between them. Amit Mishra and Marcus Stoinis have chipped in with twelve wickets between them as well. Yash Thakur and Yudhvir Singh have also chipped in with nine wickets between them.
Even though Mark Wood and Naveen-ul-Haq have picked up 18 wickets between them in 9 games they are expected to miss out from the playing eleven because of four overseas batters in the team.
LSG are expected to be unchanged for the game against MI.
Openers: Quinton de Kock, Kyle Mayers.
Middle order: Nicholas Pooran (wk), Prerak Mankad, Ayush Badoni.
All-rounders: Krunal Pandya (c), Marcus Stoinis.
Bowlers: Avesh Khan, Yash Thakur, Amit Mishra, Ravi Bishnoi.
Impact Player: Yudhvir Singh, Avesh Khan, Prerak Mankad and Deepak Hooda, Yash Thakur could be Impact player options for LSG.
