(Cricket news) There are a lot of similarities between Punjab Kings’ class of 2020 and Lucknow SuperGiants’ 2023 as the likes of KL Rahul, Ravi Bishnoi, Deepak Hooda and coach Andy Flower are going to face their former team. LSG have already established themselves as a team hard to beat at home, winning both games at the Ekana Stadium. They are currently joint-top of the IPL table with three wins from four. The former Kings players will be keen to perform against their old franchise, especially Nicholas Pooran who had a miserable time in Punjab as in the 2021 season he made only 85 runs at 7.72 across the season, and was released in the mega auction.

For PBKS Liam Livingstone has arrived in India after his knee and ankle injuries but Shikhar Dhawan suggested that he has pulled a muscle in his first training session and appears unlikely to feature in today’s game but could come into the playing XI next week against RCB. There is also a chance that Kings will rotate their seamers as Kagiso Rabada was expensive against Gujarat Titans and might make way for Nathan Ellis again.

LSG:

Super Giants have replaced bowler Mayank Yadav with Arpit Guleria as injury has ruled out Mayank out of the tournament. Super Giants have used Ayush Badoni as their Impact Player and usually bring him in for Amit Mishra when they bowl.

Possible bat-first XI: 1 Quinton de Kock, 2 KL Rahul (capt), 3 Deepak Hooda, 4 Krunal Pandya, 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Nicholas Pooran (wk), 7 Ayush Badoni, 8 Jaydev Unadkat, 9 Mark Wood, 10 Ravi Bishnoi, 11 Avesh Khan

Possible bowl-first XI: 1 Quinton de Kock, 2 KL Rahul (capt), 3 Deepak Hooda, 4 Krunal Pandya, 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Nicholas Pooran (wk), 7 Amit Mishra/Krishnappa Gowtham, 8 Jaydev Unadkat, 9 Mark Wood, 10 Ravi Bishnoi, 11 Avesh Khan

PBKS:

Rahul Chahar came in as the impact player as that trend will continue as he replaces either Prabhsimran Singh or Bhanuka Rajapaksa during the innings break if they bat first again.

Possible bat-first XI: 1 Prabhsimran Singh, 2 Shikhar Dhawan (capt), 3 Matthew Short, 4 Bhanuka Rajapaksa, 5 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 6 Sam Curran, 7 M Shahrukh Khan, 8 Harpreet Brar, 9 Rishi Dhawan, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Arshdeep Singh

Possible bowl-first XI: 1 Shikhar Dhawan (capt), 2 Matthew Short, 3 Bhanuka Rajapaksa/Prabhsimran Singh, 4 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 5 Sam Curran, 6 M Shahrukh Khan, 7 Harpreet Brar, 8 Rishi Dhawan, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Rahul Chahar, 11 Arshdeep Singh

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