LSG aim to distance themselves from mid-table traffic

LSG aim to distance themselves from mid-table traffic

For teams not named Delhi Capitals, life at home has not been perfect in IPL 2025 irrespective of where they sit on the points table. For a few, it's been marred with trying to understand what's on offer in the 22-yards in front of them and whether it can be congruent with the skills that they pack. Taming home conditions has just not come easy, but on Saturday, Lucknow Super Giants will take another stab at it.

LSG had a dramatic start to the season as a defeat to PBKS triggered a head-turning comment from Zaheer Khan. A switch up from red soil pitch to a black soil one gave them a win in the second game – but perhaps not with the sort of control they would've envisioned. Wins in Hyderabad and Kolkata have helped them keep pace with the top-four even if they currently sit outside the periphery of playoffs spots.

As the tournament progresses and more teams vie to climb up the rungs, LSG's bowling capabilities could be put to the sword. Their expensively assembled Indian attack has done just about enough in two of their three wins, but were also lacklustre in both the defeats. The batting is doing most of the heavy-lifting at the moment, but there's the inherent risk of a lopsided effort like that getting punished in the long run.

Gujarat Titans have also had their top three and impact substitute Sherfane Rutherford shoulder the bulk of the run-making in their wins, until the last game. GT could've been victims of their own success, but had Shahrukh Khan and Rahul Tewatia mop up after a rare top-order failure to post a winning total. Coincidentally, GT too pack an all-India pace attack in the absence of Kagiso Rabada, which has combined well in their four victories.

While teams with richer histories and deeper narrative threads have hogged the limelight, GT have gone about their work to calmly rise up to the top of the table, in an understated way like they did in 2022. As for LSG, their start to this season mirrors their forgettable campaign of 2024, where they began in a topsy-turvy manner and maintained that inconsistency all the way through. Ashish Nehra might want to put GT on the same path from three seasons ago where they picked 16 of the first 20 available points to distance themselves from the chasing pack. LSG however, will want to go in a completely different direction to the last season, starting with another win on Saturday afternoon.

Match Details

When: Lucknow Super Giants vs Gujarat Titans, April 12th, 03:30 PM IST

Where: Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium

**Head to head:**LSG 1 – 4 GT. Lucknow's only win over this opposition came at this venue last year when they successfully defended 163/5.

Player Notes

LSG

• Mayank Yadav continues to be unavailable.
• Avesh Khan could be crucial up front against two of GT's top three.
• Avesh has dismissed Shubman Gill twice in 51 deliveries in T20s since 2022, giving away only 64 runs.
• He's been a touch expensive against Jos Buttler (43 off 23 balls) in the same period, but has also dismissed him thrice.
• GT's No.4 Shahrukh Khan too has not got the better of Avesh, falling twice in just seven deliveries faced.

GT

• Kagiso Rabada has not returned since leaving for South Africa last week due to personal reasons.
• Rashid Khan has had an ordinary start to the season, and yet he could be GT's man to deal with the six-hitting menace of Nicholas Pooran.

LSG vs GT Stats

• Nicholas Pooran has a T20 strike rate of 150.08 in 363 innings. At the Ekana stadium in Lucknow, it drops to 132.52 (273 runs in 16 innings).
• The venue has the reverse effect on Ayush Badoni – who has a career T20 strike rate of 135.43 (65 innings) while rises to 142.07 at the Lucknow venue (287 runs in 18 innings).
• Shubman Gill has 176 runs in 5 innings against LSG – scored at a strike rate of 139.68.
• Rishabh Pant, who has made a woeful start to the season, has 147 runs in 3 innings at a strike rate of 177.1 against GT

Quotes

• "It is good to see the combination of both Ashish Nehra and Shubman, they work very well, it is like hand in glove, so it is good for the players around to see how things unfold." – Shahrukh Khan on the captain-coach dynamic at GT
• "My personal game… I feel like I'm in a good space, hitting the ball really well, obviously batting behind the top four or five batters that have been doing really, really well in the competition. So just trying to fulfill my role wherever I can and as best as I can." – David Miller