(Cricket news) After an impressive inaugural for Lucknow SuperGiants they will finally play at their home ground for the first time. Last year, Super Giants’ middle order looked very fragile as they went on to buy Nicholas Pooran as they paid – INR 16 crore for him despite already having two wicketkeeping options in KL Rahul and Quinton de Kock. SuperGiants’ squad has a lot of allrounders, which is a big advantage but last season’s marquee bowler Mohsin Khan is injured with a shoulder injury. Moreover, Flower is not expecting him to be available at all this season.
Delhi Capitals on the other hand are without their regular captain, Rishabh Pant, this year but in David Warner, they have a leader who has won the IPL with Sunrisers Hyderabad. Prithvi Shaw and Mitchell Marsh’s batting form are going to be very important for the team as Marsh is going to bowl as well this season. Delhi lack a genuine allrounder as their head coach Ricky Ponting is confident the Impact Player rule will help them in that aspect.
Super Giants will be without their key batsmen in de Kock, who will join the squad on April 3, after South Africa’s ODI series against Netherlands. Delhi’s South African players Anrich Nortje and Lungi Ngidi will also miss Saturday’s match too. Mustafizur Rahman was rested for the final T20I against Ireland on Friday as he is also set to arrive in a few days. Super Giants could also start with three overseas players. If they bat first, their three overseas players could be Kyle Mayers, Pooran and Marcus Stoinis and Mark Wood can come in as an Impact Player for a batter.
LSG:
Probable bat-first XI: 1 KL Rahul (capt & wk), 2 Kyle Mayers, 3 Deepak Hooda, 4 Nicholas Pooran, 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Ayush Badoni, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Prerak Mankad, 9 Jaydev Unadkat, 10 Avesh Khan, 11 Ravi Bishnoi
Probable bowl-first XI: 1 KL Rahul (capt & wk), 2 Kyle Mayers, 3 Deepak Hooda, 4 Marcus Stoinis, 5 Ayush Badoni, 6 Krunal Pandya, 7 Prerak Mankad, 8 Jaydev Unadkat, 9 Avesh Khan, 10 Mark Wood, 11 Ravi Bishnoi
In Pant’s absence, Sarfaraz Khan is going to keep wicket. He is predominantly a fielder but in the three matches during Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. If Mustafizur is not available, it weakens Capitals’ death bowling so they might just beef up their batting by having four overseas batters in their XI. Ishant Sharma could be the Impact Player and replace Shaw when they bowl.
DC:
Probable bat-first XI: 1 David Warner (capt), 2 Prithvi Shaw, 3 Mitchell Marsh, 4 Rilee Rossouw, 5 Sarfaraz Khan (wk), 6 Rovman Powell, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Aman Khan/Kamlesh Nagarkoti, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Chetan Sakariya, 11 Khaleel Ahmed
Probable bowl-first XI: 1 David Warner (capt), 2 Mitchell Marsh, 3 Rilee Rossouw, 4 Sarfaraz Khan (wk), 5 Rovman Powell, 6 Axar Patel, 7 Aman Khan/Kamlesh Nagarkoti, 8 Kuldeep Yadav, 9 Chetan Sakariya, 10 Khaleel Ahmed, 11 Ishant Sharma
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