New skipper Rishabh Pant will be eager to make his mark as Lucknow Super Giants look to win their first home game of the season when they host an in-form Punjab Kings in the IPL in Lucknow on Tuesday. Pant, who became IPL’s most expensive player in the auction last year, will be determined to justify his hefty Rs 27 crore price tag after low returns as a batter in the first two games. His captaincy at LSG started with an unfortunate loss, as they fell short by just one wicket against his former team, Delhi Capitals.
However, LSG made a strong comeback with an impressive five-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad at home, thanks to some sensational hitting by Nicholas Pooran (70 off 23) and Mitchell Marsh (52 off 31) and Shardul Thakur’s (4/34) twin strikes in the third over which halted the marauding SRH batting unit.
Despite the team’s success, Pant suffered a second consecutive failure with the bat, managing only scores of 0 and 15 in the opening two matches.
The Indian dasher will be keen to silence his critics and let his bat do the talking.
For the first time, Pant will face his former Delhi Capitals coach Ricky Ponting, who has joined Punjab Kings this season.
It will a clash between the most expensive and second-most expensive players in IPL history, with Shreyas Iyer leading Punjab Kings.
In contrast to Pant’s struggles, Iyer, who was roped in for Rs 26.75 crore, led from the front with a match-winning 97 not out off 42 deliveries against Gujarat Titans.
The IPL-winning captain is relishing playing at number 3 and will look to continue in the same vein.
Shashank Singh started from where he had left in the previous season, smashing boundaries at will, while Priyansh Arya made an electrifying IPL debut with a 23-ball 47 at the top for Punjab.
Their batting efforts were complemented by India quick Arshdeep Singh and a disciplined bowling at the death by medium pacer Vijaykumar Vyshak, who was brought in as an impact sub.
The Ekana Stadium tends to favour bowlers, particularly spinners and slower bowlers. However, the wicket produced varied results during the IPL last season and in the four WPL played last month.
Spinners from both side could play a crucial role in the outcome of the match.
If LSG’s formidable batting line up can put the runs on the board, the onus will be on Ravi Bishnoi, who hasn’t been in the best of form, to provide breakthrough with his effective leg spin. He will have fellow leg-spinner Digvesh Rathi, who made heads turn with his stellar show at the inaugural Delhi Premier League last year, for company.
The hosts also have the option to play left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed, while Aiden Markram is also handy with off spin.
Seasoned Indian leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal will be the leader of the spin attack for Punjab with Glenn Maxwell also expected to roll his arm over.
They have plenty of pace bowling options as well with Iyer using as many as seven bowlers in the match against GT.
Squads:
Punjab Kings: Shreyas Iyer (c), Priyansh Arya, Pyla Avinash, Harnoor Singh, Josh Inglis, Prabhsimran Singh, Vishnu Vinod, Nehal Wadhera, Azmatullah Omarzai, Aaron Hardie, Marco Jansen, Glenn Maxwell, Musheer Khan, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Suryansh Shedge, Arshdeep Singh, Xavier Bartlett, Yuzvendra Chahal, Praveen Dubey, Lockie Ferguson, Harpreet Brar, Kuldeep Sen, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Yash Thakur.
Lucknow Super Giants: Rishabh Pant (c&wk), David Miller, Aiden Markram, Aryan Juyal, Himmat Singh, Matthew Breetzke, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Mitchell Marsh, Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Arshin Kulkarni, Ayush Badoni, Avesh Khan, Akash Deep, M Siddharth, Digvesh Singh, Akash Singh, Shamar Joseph, Prince Yadav, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, Shardul Thakur, Ravi Bishnoi.
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