The break in the IPL has come as a blessing for the Lucknow Super Giants as they were on a losing streak, having lost four of their last five games and seemingly worried about their form as they were all geared up to take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru here on May 9, when the tournament was suspended in the wake of hostilities on the border.
The break has given LSG time to rethink their strategies and hopefully, also given their skipper, Rishabh Pant, enough space to negate the pressure of poor performance with the bat. LSG will look to enter the ring with renewed vigour against Sunrisers Hyderabad here on Monday.
Another plus point for LSG is that they are still in the fray for a PLayoffs berth despite being in seventh place.
On the other hand, SRH, have no chance of qualifying and pride is their only motivation. At the start of the IPL, SRH seemed to be the team to watch out for, but they flattered to deceive. Yet, on their day, their aggressive batting line-up is capable of shocking any side. With batters like Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Aniket Verma and Heinrich Klaasen, few would have expected them to be languishing at No. 8, with just three wins from 11 games.
Since the break, LSG have suffered a setback to their bowling unit, with the injury-prone Mayank Yadav getting unfit again with a back issue after playing only two games. He has been replaced by London-born New Zealand quick Will O’Rourke to shore up thee pace attack.
The good thing for LSG is that their entire foreign contingent is back and they can continue to rely on overseas batters Mitchell Marsh, Nicholas Pooran, Aiden Markram, and David Miller to put the runs on the board. It needs to be seen if one of them would be sacrificed to bring in O’Rourke to provide the much-needed fire to the bowling department. Also in the ranks is all-rounder Shardul Thakur, who, with Akash Deep, are the only LSG players in the England-bound India ‘A’ team. But Shardul has not seen action ever since Mayank joined the squad.
Getting the combination right is going to be crucial for the home team as they need to win their remaining three games, improve their Net Run-Rate drastically and then hope that other results go in their favour. It’s an uphill task, almost bordering on the impossible. But LSG have to remain optimistic till the doors are fully shut on them, especially as they have a good 4-1 head-to-head record against SRH. That should give them enough confidence to go head-on into this must-win game.