KL Rahul won the crucial toss as Lucknow Super Giants elected to bat first against Gujarat Titans in the 21st match of the Indian Premier League 2024 on Sunday.
Lucknow Super Ginats made no changes to their playing eleven that defeated RCB in the last game. Gujarat made two major changes to their starting eleven with BR Sharath making his IPL debut replacing injured wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha and fit-again Spencer Johnson replacing all-rounder Azmatullah Omarzai.
"We are going to bat first," KL Rahul said after winning the toss. "Looks like a good wicket, we batted first in the last two games and defended pretty well. They have a better record against us, but they have been a better team and had success in the previous two seasons. We are playing with the same team. It's still his (Mayank Yadav's) first season, a few injuries have been hard on his body. For a 21 old boy, he's very professional. It's important for us to manage him. We have some good fast bowlers and we have Morne and others to look after him."
Gujarat Titans left the Kiwi star Kane Williamson on the impact substitutes list. Gill revealed that Saha missed out due to a back spasm and has been replaced by BR Sharath, the 27-year-old wicketkeeper batter from Karnataka.
"We would have bowled first, so happy," Shubman Gill said. "We were top on the game for 33 overs of the match, the last 7 overs didn't go in our favour. We have a couple of changes. Saha misses out due to a back spasm and BR Sharath makes his debut for us. Spencer comes back in for Omarzai. We got to forget what has happened in the previous match."
Lucknow Super Giants Playing XI: Quinton de Kock, KL Rahul (c & wk), Devdutt Padikkal, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi, Yash Thakur, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mayank Yadav.
Gujarat Titans Playing XI: Shubman Gill (c), Sharath BR (wk), Sai Sudharsan, Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, Umesh Yadav, Spencer Johnson, Darshan Nalkande, Mohit Sharma.
Lucknow Super Giants impact subs: Manimaran Siddharth, Deepak Hooda, Amit Mishra, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Arshad Khan.
Gujarat Titans impact subs: Kane Williamson, Abhinav Manohar, Matthew Wade, Manav Suthar, Jayant Yadav.
