FANTASY PREVIEW
Follow UsWe precisely have a week to go for the group stages of the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League to conclude, and the race for the playoffs is heating up. Gujarat Titans, with 9 wins, have already made it through to the next stage, but a multitude of other teams are still fighting for the three remaining spots. Sunday will witness two playoff contenders, Lucknow Super Giants and Rajasthan Royals, go head to head with each other at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. LSG will seal qualification with a win, while RR will edge that much closer should they collect two points. It is a tricky situation for RR, though, for a loss will leave them in an uncomfortable position, having to fight it out for the fourth spot in the final week.
Ground Details
Lucknow will take on Rajasthan at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai, the highest scoring venue of the IPL 2022 season. 14 matches have been played at the Brabourne so far, and the ground has seen teams post an average first innings score of 179. Of the 14 matches, equal number of games have been won by the team batting first and chasing, but captains have, in general, tended to chase at the venue due to its true nature.
That being said, each of the last three games at the Brabourne have been won by the team batting first. In fact, the last game played at the venue saw Punjab Kings post 209 batting first, and then restrict the Royal Challengers to 155 to seal a thumping win.
Given the recent results, then, it won’t be a surprise to see the captain winning the toss on Sunday opting to bat. It is also worth noting that both Lucknow and Rajasthan are sides that prefer batting first.
Team selection
Captain selection
This might not be the most popular of choices, but the numbers suggest that Krunal Pandya is a fantasy player’s dream. Krunal quietly has had a fantastic season, scoring 150+ runs with the bat whilst averaging 23 with the ball, and he’s been equally contributing on both fronts. Taking a punt on him against the Royals might just be worth the risk.
Our Criclytics Player Projection predicts Krunal to score 8-12 runs with the bat and pick 1-2 wickets with the ball
X-factors
In general, uncapped players featuring in their first ever season take time to settle, but that’s not been the case with Mohsin Khan, who has set the IPL alight from the get go. The tall left-armer has featured in 6 matches this season, and in that has taken 10 wickets at a remarkable average of 10.90 and ER of 5.19. If you take into consideration the last 4 games alone, Mohsin has 9 wickets while not going at over 6 runs per over even once. He’s in the form of his life, and thus picking him in the side is a no-brainer.
Our Criclytics Player Projection predicts Mohsin to take 1-2 wickets vs RR
Talking about x-factors with the ball, it is impossible to look beyond Yuzvendra Chahal, who arguably has been the best bowler of IPL 2022. He’s currently second on the purple cap list, with 23 scalps to his name, and has been a wicket-taking machine. In other words, a fantasy points machine. He was not quite at his best in the previous encounter vs DC, but it was only a couple of games ago that Chahal took a 3-fer. Chahal took a four-wicket haul in the reverse-fixture versus LSG too, and is a no-brainer to be selected in the fantasy XI.
Our Criclytics Player Projection predicts Chahal to pick 1-2 wickets vs LSG
We’ve spoken about the second highest wicket-taker, so it’s only fair that we speak about the second-highest run-getter, KL Rahul, who despite his share of failures has been enjoying a terrific season overall. Rahul failed in each of his last two matches, but if his recent form in the IPL is any evidence to go by, it probably means that he’s due a big one. Rahul did not trouble the scorers in the reverse fixture against RR, but he is someone who needs to be backed at all costs.
Our Criclytics Player Projection predicts Rahul to score between 25-37 runs vs RR
Here are the top-10 picks as per Criclytics projected points
Probable XIs
LSG: Quinton de Kock (wk), KL Rahul (c), Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya, Ayush Badoni, Marcus Stoinis, Jason Holder, Dushmantha Chameera, Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan, Ravi Bishnoi
RR: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Devdutt Padikkal, Rassie van der Dussen, Riyan Parag, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Sen
