LSG vs PBKS Preview – Lucknow seek a winning hat-trick at their home ground
Lucknow Super Giants will cross swords with Punjab Kings when they host the Shikhar Dhawan-led side in the 21st match of the ongoing 16th edition of the Indian Premier League. While LSG are backed with back-to-back victories from their games against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore, PBKS will be coming off consecutive defeats from their games against Gujarat Titans and SRH.
The KL Rahul-led side will have an upper hand in the game, given that the match will be played at their home ground, the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow. PBKS, on the other hand, will be hoping to break their losing streak and get back to winning ways as they dropped down to the sixth position after their recent loss against GT.
The two sides have faced each other only once in the tournament’s history. Since team LSG was introduced just last year, they faced off against PBKS once in the league stages in their inaugural IPL year and clinched a victory. The Punjab Kings do have a strong squad but will have to pull up their socks and improve across all departments.
Pitch and conditions
The Ekana Stadium’s pitch acted differently in both the games played there so far. After a good-scoring game, the second game turned out to be a low-scoring one. Chasing here seems an ideal option and thus the captain winning the toss would likely opt to bowl first.
Venue details: Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow.
Last T20 match at the venue: SRH- 121/8 (20 overs) | LSG- 127/5 (16 overs)
Probable playing XI for Lucknow Super Giants vs Punjab Kings clash:
Lucknow Super Giants
The KL Rahul-led side will be confident going into the forthcoming game, given their close victory against RCB in their previous fixture. They chased down the target on the final delivery to bring up another nail-biting thriller in the tournament and will be expected to put up a similar show. The one expected change is Quinton de Kock replacing Kyle Mayers.
Punjab Kings
Things are not going well for the Kings this year as their campaign has been hampered by multiple losses. The team was strengthened by the inclusion of some of the top overseas players, but it is yet to be seen how Punjab utilise them. In the last post-match interview, Shikhar Dhawan confirmed that Liam Livingstone is yet to recover fully from his injury.
