Low stakes, but high context - LSG, RR out to square off against each other

Some teams in the IPL just play along. For the longest time, the tag fell on Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals. Then Lucknow Super Giants made an entry to the club. Success doesn’t define their importance to the league. It is still an exclusive club of a few big players like Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

Hence, when Sanju Samson and KL Rahul take the field on March 24 (Sunday) for the fourth match of the IPL 2024, there will be a lesser amount of interest among fans. However, for the fans of Indian cricket and cricket in general, there have been many sub-plots to keep an eye on, not least because of where the skippers stand in the scheme of things ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup in June.

RR vs LSG Head-to-Head

Overall 3 | RR 2 | LSG 1

In Jaipur: Overall 1 | RR 0 | LSG 1

Venue Details

The Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur hosted five matches in IPL 2023, with teams choosing to bat first in four games, winning three of them. The average first innings score at the venue was 172 and the average first innings winning score was 176 in IPL 2023.

Even though Rajasthan lost four of their five games in the IPL 2023, they will be happy returning to the venue, having had a 63% win percentage at home which is the second-highest for a team. 

Weather Forecast

The atmosphere in the desert city of Jaipur is humid, with no rain in sight. This is usually the time when temperatures tend to soar, which might create some concern for both sides with the upcoming game being an afternoon match.

Things to watch out for

Where will Padikkal bat?

Since moving on from Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Devdutt Padikkal was made to bat in the middle order for Rajasthan Royals - where he understandably had little impact. Now that he has joined Lucknow Super Giants, a position has opened up at the top of the order for him to partner with Quinton de Kock.

Padikkal has always been a very good player of spin and even averaged 70 against them while being dismissed only four times in two seasons. But since 2022, his performance against spinners dropped a lot as he was dismissed 11 times with an average of 20.9 while batting in the middle overs.

LSG’s incumbent opener KL Rahul has always preferred to open the innings, but for him to back himself for a T20 World Cup spot, batting in the middle-order has become mandatory. Across IPL 2022 & 2023, Rahul averaged a staggering 106.33 against spin, and in middle overs (7-15 phase), in particular, he had an average of 69.33 against slower bowlers. 

He surely can’t leapfrog the incumbent bunch of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Ruturaj Gaikwad as far as an opening spot is concerned, so batting in the middle-order becomes a better proposition. That will also allow Padikkal to flourish, perhaps becoming a permanent solution to how LSG would want to shape their innings. 

Royal’s over-reliance on Boult

Last year, it was entirely Trent Boult for Rajasthan Royals in the first six overs. In the IPL since 2020, no bowler has taken more wickets than the Kiwi pacer in the powerplay, and his dot ball percentage was the best for a bowler in that phase. However, in a tragic matter of fact, despite Boult’s success with the new ball, only LSG and PBKS took fewer wickets at the phase last season. 

This is because, Boult was the only bowler to perform consistently at the phase for RR last season. That despite them roping in new-ball specialist Sandeep Sharma mid-way through the tournament. 

Last season, Sharma bowled more than 30% of his overs at the death overs with an economy rate of under 10 runs per over. He picked up eight wickets in this phase and was the side’s second-leading wicket-taker in the last five overs. While that’s wholesome for the Royals, they would want Sharma to have a major mark in the first six overs so as to reduce the burden from the left-arm pacer and provide the team with a solid base to work with.

Probable XIs

RR: Jos Buttler (wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (c), Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel (IP), Rovman Powell, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sandeep Sharma, Avesh Khan (Impact Player)

LSG: Quinton de Kock*, Devdutt Padikkal, Marcus Stoinis*, Nicholas Pooran*, KL Rahul (c & wk), Ayush Badoni, Krunal Pandya, K Gowtham, David Willey/Naveen-ul-Haq*, Shivam Mavi, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan (impact player)

Squads

Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, Dhruv Jurel, Kunal Rathore, Donovan Ferreira, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Shimron Hetmyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Rovman Powell, Shubham Dubey, Ravichandran Ashwin, Abid Mushtaq, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sandeep Sharma, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Sen, Adam Zampa, Nandre Burger, Avesh Khan.

Lucknow Super Giants: Quinton de Kock, KL Rahul, Nicolas Pooran, Devdutt Padikkal, Ayush Badoni, Ashton Turner, Deepak Hooda, K. Gowtham, Krunal Pandya, Kyle Mayers, Marcus Stoinis, Prerak Mankad, Yudhvir Singh Charak, David Willey, Arshin Kulkarni, Md. Arshad Khan, Shamar Joseph (WI), Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, Ravi Bishnoi, Yash Thakur, Amit Mishra, Naveen-ul-Haq, Shivam Mavi, Manimaran Siddarth

Telecast and Streaming Details

The match will be live on Star Sports Network and live-streamed on Jio Cinema. The game will start at 3:30 PM, with the toss happening at 3 PM.

Play Asli Fantasy on Cricket.com. Don't delay, Download Our App Now.