Lucknow Super Giants skipper Rishabh Pant won the toss and opted to bowl first against Rajasthan Royals at Lucknow. Heading into Wednesday’s encounter, LSG were coming off a tough run in IPL 2026, having dropped each of their last three matches. Rajasthan, meanwhile, had also stumbled recently, losing their previous two games in succession.
For LSG, there were two notable changes to the playing XI. Legspinner Digvesh Rathi was brought in, taking the place of M Siddharth. Mayank Yadav also made his season debut, replacing Avesh Khan and getting his first outing of the campaign.
Speaking at the toss, Pant said the management is still settling on the best balance for the side. “We’re still working out what’s best in terms of our team combination. The last few matches have been challenging, and we need to figure out a way to play well here on our home ground. It’s largely about small adjustments, while keeping the overall stability,” he said.
LSG continued to back Nicholas Pooran to rediscover his form. So far, the batter had managed only 51 runs across six innings, with the lowest strike rate among batters who have faced at least 50 balls this season. Pant said that given Pooran’s earlier promise, the team wants to stay supportive. “When a player has shown that much potential, you want to trust him, whatever the moment,” Pant added.
Rajasthan captain Riyan Parag was comfortable with the decision to bat first. “We’ve batted well, including in our game against KKR, though there were a few misjudgements in the middle overs. The message is simple: we have to play 40 overs of good cricket, and hopefully we’ll be able to do that,” Parag said.
On the table, Rajasthan are fourth with eight points from six matches, and a win would lift them into second place. Lucknow sit ninth after losing four of their six outings.
RR bat-first XI
- 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal
- 2 Vaibhav Sooryavanshi
- 3 Dhruv Jurel (wk)
- 4 Riyan Parag (capt)
- 5 Shimron Hetmyer
- 6 Donovan Ferreira
- 7 Ravindra Jadeja
- 8 Jofra Archer
- 9 Ravi Bishnoi
- 10 Brijesh Sharma
- 11 Nandre Burger
RR bench: Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Ravi Singh, Yash Raj Punia, Shubham Dubey, Tushar Deshpande
LSG bowl-first XI
- 1 Mitchell Marsh
- 2 Ayush Badoni
- 3 Rishabh Pant (capt & wk)
- 4 Nicholas Pooran
- 5 Aiden Markram
- 6 Mukul Choudhary
- 7 Mohammed Shami
- 8 Mohsin Khan
- 9 Prince Yadav
- 10 Digvesh Rathi
- 11 Mayank Yadav
LSG bench: Himmat Singh, George Linde, M Siddharth, Matthew Breetzke, Abdul Samad
