Lucknow: Rishabh Pant will aim to hit the refresh button after a wretched run as Lucknow Super Giants make one last ditch attempt to stay alive in IPL play-offs race by winning their remaining three league matches, starting with clash against Sunrisers Hyderabad here Monday.
Last year’s finalists SRH are already out of contention and will be playing for pride while LSG have an outside chance of sneaking into the last-four if they can get to 16 points with three emphatic wins.
LSG’s net run-rate -0.469 however makes it virtually impossible unless their last three opponents are completely annihilated.
For SRH, it will be a chance for some of their players to shrug off rustiness that has plagued their campaign through and through.
The likes of Nitish Kumar Reddy and Ishan Kishan wouldn’t mind some runs under their belt before they leave the sub-continental shores for India A’s tour of England.
However the bigger context is skipper Pant’s personal form which has nosedived since his record Rs 27 crore bidding at the IPL auctions last year.
With 128 runs from 11 games at a strike-rate of less than 100 and average of 12.80, it couldn’t have gotten worse for Pant. Things can only go up from here on.
Pant’s name is doing the rounds for the Test vice-captaincy and even though IPL is a different format, getting a few impactful innings and guiding the team to victory is always good optics just before any major announcement.
The forced break couldn’t have come at a more opportune time as it must have given the stockily built Rourkee man a chance to go back to the drawing board and analyse his own game.
LSG will also want their main batter Nicholas Pooran (410 runs) to start firing once again as he had tapered off after a bright start in the first five or six games.
New Zealand seamer William O’ Rourke is a welcome addition in place of an injured Mayank Yadav, who is once again out for an indefinite period.
It will once again depend on top three which includes South African Aiden Markram (348) and Mitchell Marsh (378).
The problem with LSG has been the middle order that hasn’t performed as per expectations, except save Ayush Badoni (326). David Miller (160 runs ) has also not set the stage on fire during the final overs.
LSG’s bowling has also been below-par with only find of the season Digvesh Rathi (12 wickets @8.09 ER) being their standout performer.
Ravi Bishnoi, an otherwise steady figure in LSG line-up has been severely off-colour, going for more than 10 runs an over.
Big fast bowler Avesh Khan (10 wickets @10.10) has been inconsistent like every season while Test specialist Akash Deep had to be dropped after going at 12.25 per over in past four games.
In SRH line-up, Abhishek Sharma (311 runs), who regularly plays red ball for Punjab, would be sulking after being ignored for India A side for England tour.
On his day, Abhishek is a force to reckon with and LSG’s below-par bowling line-up will have its task cut on Monday.
Squads:
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Pat Cummins (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Atharva Taide, Abhinav Manohar, Aniket Verma, Sachin Baby, Smaran Ravichandran, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Travis Head, Harshal Patel, Kamindu Mendis, Wiaan Mulder, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Shami, Rahul Chahar, Simarjeet Singh, Zeeshan Ansari, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga.
Lucknow Super Giants: Rishabh Pant (wk/captain), Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Abdul Samad, David Miller, Shardul Thakur, Avesh Khan, Akash Deep, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Ravi Bishnoi, Prince Yadav, Shahbaz Ahmed, Matthew Breetzke, Himmat Singh, Shamar Joseph, Manimaran Siddharth, Aryan Juyal, RS Hangargekar, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Akash Maharaj Singh, Arshin Kulkarni.
Match Starts at 7:30 pm.
