Follow UsYou need to be really special to keep a player of Quinton de Kock’s calibre on the bench. But such has been the might of Kyle Mayers, Marcus Stoinis, and Nicholas Pooran this season that Lucknow Super Giants have no other choice but to bench the South African keeper. What does that tell about LSG as a team this season?
Under the tutelage of Gautam Gambhir, they are a pragmatic bunch, know their strengths and relative weaknesses, and that, despite KL Rahul continuing to defend his slow-scoring approach to eternity. In Ravi Bishoni and Amit Mishra, they have two performers who make things happen.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), who lost their last game to Kolkata Knight Riders at home, will be wary of that, for they can’t afford any slip-up from here. It will not be easy given that RCB has their next five games on the road. But if things had been that easy, RCB wouldn’t have to look at their trophy-less cabinet with so much alacrity.
Things to watch out for
LSG's overdependency on foreign players
Mayers, Pooran, Stoinis vs Rahul, Hooda, Badoni - it has been pretty straightforward this season. The impact of Indian batters for LSG has been so minimal that barring Badoni’s knock against Punjab Kings in their last encounter, it is difficult to point at any innings that have a positive impact on the team.
In the bowling department, even though Ravi Bishnoi has been consistent, English pacer Mark Wood is still LSG’s top wicket-taker despite only playing four matches. Naveen-ul-Haq stepped up with the ball in the last game to register three wickets for 30 runs in his four overs. For any side to have that much dependency on their foreign players doesn’t bring flexibility to the plans, and that would certainly be in Gambhir and Andrew Flower’s minds ahead of the RCB encounter.
The Rahul conundrum
The KL Rahul of 2018 was a different beast altogether. But since then, he shed that free-flowing approach to become a rather reticent batter, often impacting the team heavily. This season, he seemed to have been getting a lot more flak because runs are not coming from his bat as well. Sure enough, Rahul has crossed the 30-run mark four times in IPL 2023, and those have been LSG’s lowest team totals in the tournament. He has stepped up on tricky pitches where the other LSG batters have failed to make enough inroads.
But his first eight-match SR of 114 this season has been the lowest for him. While the batter has been comfortable in steering through the powerplay without giving away his wicket in most of the games, he has struggled to get through the middle overs and has been dismissed in four out of his eight innings in this phase. How would he justify that?
For LSG to have a splendid run, they need to have the most prolific run-scorer in the IPL to come good and score at a decent pace. Anything else is a charge he can only push to avoid. He won’t have a better chance than this, knowing his tally of 628 runs against RCB is his second most against a franchise in the IPL, and his SR of 145 is his best against a team.
Ground Details
In IPL 2023, captains winning the toss have opted to bat and bowl first twice each at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow. The batting first teams and batting second teams also won two matches each in IPL 2023, which evens the record for the narrative sake.
This season, the average first-innings score has been 152, while the average first-innings winning score has been 164 at this venue. Pacers have taken more wickets at a better rate than spinners at this venue, whereas spinners have been more economical than pacers at this venue in IPL 2023. To put things in perspective, this venue has the least run rate in a match in IPL 2023.
Tactical Nous
> Virat Kohli has been very consistent in IPL 2023, scoring four 50s in eight games carrying the batting unit of RCB. He has been outstanding against pace scoring at a strike rate of 170 and has not been much comfortable against spinners as he has got out numerous times against them. However, Kohli will be delighted that LSG have Amit Mishra in their ranks as no other batter has scored more runs than the former Indian skipper against Amit Mishra in T20s.
> Hasaranga has been one of the most expensive bowlers in middle overs, conceded almost 10 runs per over, and managed just three wickets. It is imperative that RCB shield the spinner from the LSG hitters like Stoinis and Pooran.
Probable XIs
Lucknow Super Giants: KL Rahul (c), Kyle Mayers, Deepak Hooda, Marcus Stoinis, Krunal Pandya, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Ayush Badoni, Naveen-ul-Haq, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Yash Thakur
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (c), Faf du Plessis. Shahbaz Ahmed, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Suyash Prabhudessai, Wanindu Hasaranga, David Willey, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj