LSG vs RCB Playing 11 and Toss News: RCB opt to field, name an unchanged XI in Lucknow

“I think it’s a beautiful playing arena. But when you first come down and have a look at this wicket, the one thing that you do notice straight away, there is a little bit of cracking, which is not uncommon at this time of the season. But when you come down and you feel the wicket, it’s quite abrasive. There’s only a little bit of grass and it’s pretty well rolled in, but it’s really abrasive. So what that means to me straight away is that once that shine goes off the ball, the ball will start to stick in the surface a little bit more. And particularly on this wicket, which is a black soil wicket. So what does that mean exactly? So black soil generally, we would see is less bounce as compared to the red soil pitch or the composite one. And also the turn, if you look at the turn as well, it’s not as much as some of the other surfaces. Now that’s going to be the key here,” Dasgupta and Finch said in their pitch report.

Rajat Patidar: I think we’re gonna get a pretty hard surface, but I’m not sure, it’s a black soil pitch and the past four or five matches here had low scores. We’ll try to restrict them to as low a score as possible. (on the break) It was a good break I would say. And everyone is looking in good frame of mind. And we came together after six or seven days of pretty hard work plus a couple of weeks. As I said, everyone is doing pretty well throughout the tournament and we are looking forward for this game.

Rishabh Pant: The only thing is moving with more clarity. We know we are the top players, but at the same time, when clarity is missing sometimes, it can happen in cricket. So most of the time, the talk is about clarity, and there are a few changes in the batting order, so hopefully we can figure out and take it for the next season. Having a stable environment in T20 cricket is essential, but at the same time, when the changes are needed, you should be able to change something, because every time, doing the same thing might not give you the same outcome. So trying sometimes, especially where we stand now, trying is not a bad option for sure.

LSG: Mitchell Marsh, Arshin Kulkarni, Nicholas Pooran, Aiden Markram, Rishabh Pant(wk/c), Akshat Raghuwanshi, Himmat Singh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Mohammed Shami, Prince Yadav; Impact Subs: Mayank Yadav, Mukul Choudhary, Abdul Samad, Manimaran Siddharth, Avesh Khan

RCB: Jacob Bethell, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar(c), Jitesh Sharma(wk), Krunal Pandya, Romario Shepherd, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Suyash Sharma, Rasikh Salam Dar, Josh Hazlewood; Impact Subs: Jordan Cox, Tim David, Mangesh Yadav, Vicky Ostwal, Venkatesh Iyer

Josh Inglis, Mohsin Khan and Avesh Khan miss out for the Super Giants, and Arshin Kulkarni, Shahbaz Ahmed and Digvesh Singh Rathi take their place.

Interesting call by LSG, who replace two frontline quicks with spinners.

RCB captain Rajat Patidar adds that the defending champions are unchanged for today’s game.

The pitch at Lucknow’s Ekana Cricket Stadium has been relatively low-scoring this season, where none of the teams have breached the 170-mark on the black-soil wicket. The upcoming game will be played on the same surface where LSG and KKR had been tied on 155, meaning batters will have to earn their runs yet again.

Of the four matches that have taken place at Lucknow’s Ekana Cricket Stadium so far this season, teams batting second have won twice while only one game has witnessed a total being defended successfully. It has also been the trend in the last five games – with the chasing team winning on four of those occasions.

So both LSG captain Rishabh Pant and his RCB counterpart Rajat Patidar are likely to field, whoever wins the toss today.

Despite being on the verge of becoming the first team to get eliminated from the playoffs race, Lucknow Super Giants are likely to continue with their existing combination. Which means Josh Inglis is likely to continue opening alongside fellow Australian Mitchell Marsh with Nicholas Pooran coming in at No 3.

RCB opener Phil Salt had suffered a finger injury during the home game against Delhi Capitals, and has flown back home for scans as a result. Not only will he miss Thursday’s match in Lucknow, his participation in the playoffs is also under doubt.

Here are the players who are likely to be included in RCB’s lineup for their home game against LSG:

Jacob Bethell, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (c), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma, Rasikh Salam Dar (IP)

Here are the players who are likely to be included in LSG’s lineup for their home game against RCB: 

Mitchell Marsh, Josh Inglis, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant (c&wk), Aiden Markram, Akshat Raghuwanshi, Mukul Choudhary, Mohammed Shami, Mohsin Khan, Price Yadav, Avesh Khan, Digvesh Rathi (IP)

Here are the full squads of Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bengaluru: 

LSG: Mitchell Marsh, Josh Inglis, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant(wk/c), Aiden Markram, Akshat Raghuwanshi, Himmat Singh, Mohammed Shami, Mohsin Khan, Avesh Khan, Prince Yadav, Manimaran Siddharth, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Mayank Yadav, Shahbaz Ahmed, Abdul Samad, Ayush Badoni, Mukul Choudhary, George Linde, Anrich Nortje, Matthew Breetzke, Arjun Tendulkar, Akash Maharaj Singh, Arshin Kulkarni, Naman Tiwari

RCB: Jacob Bethell, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar(c), Jitesh Sharma(wk), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Romario Shepherd, Venkatesh Iyer, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma, Rasikh Salam Dar, Jordan Cox, Mangesh Yadav, Vicky Ostwal, Jacob Duffy, Swapnil Singh, Philip Salt, Nuwan Thushara, Vihaan Malhotra, Abhinandan Singh, Kanishk Chouhan, Satvik Deswal

The LSG vs RCB match will be getting underway at 7.30 pm IST, with toss taking place half-an-hour earlier.

The Lucknow Super Giants vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru match will be taking place at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow.

We will be bringing you the latest updates on toss and team changes on the LSG vs RCB match. Stay tuned for more updates.