Clash of the Newbies
1. Overview
Time: 7:30 PM
Date: 28th March 2022
Venue: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
As these 2 sides join the cash rich league, the excitement is only going to get higher. With no baggage of past performances, both teams should be all geared up to start off their IPL journey with a win. And the schedule has been fair to have both of them face each other in their first ever match, rather than facing experienced sides.
While LSG looks a better batting unit with KL Rahul and De Kock as their openers, GT’s bowling looks quite promising with the likes of Rashid, Ferguson and Shami. This wont be an easy battle for either side but LSG would have a slight advantage of captaincy as KL Rahul have led PBKS for past 2 season while Hardik is new to captaincy.
2. Probable XIs
Lucknow Super Giants: KL Rahul (C), Quinton De Kock (WK), Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda, Manan Vohra, Krunal Pandya, Ankit Rajpoot, K Gowtham, Ravi Bishnoi, Dushmantha Chameera, Avesh Khan
Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (WK), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Abhinav Manohar, David Miller, Hardik Pandya (C), Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, R Sai Kishore, Lockie Ferguson, Mohammed Shami
3. Pitch Report
Like the first match at this venue between the Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings, expect another low scoring encounter. Spinners are going to get help from the surface and with dew factor coming into play, chasing side will be at advantage. So the toss will be very crucial.
4. Interesting Facts
1. In 2016-17, 2 New Sides have joined the IPL, Gujarat Lions and Pune Super Giants. Co-incidentally, the 2 new teams joining this season too have a Gujarat and a Super Giant.
2. The Pandya Brothers, who have played all their matches together for Mumbai Indians so far, will finally clash against each other as both have joined the new sides.
3. David Miller needs another 26 Runs to complete 2000 Runs in IPL.
5. Dream XI
