Lucknow Super Giants captain KL Rahul won the toss and elected to bowl first against Royal Challengers Bangalore in match No. 15 of IPL 2023 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, here on Monday.
While Lucknow beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets in their last game, Bangalore were given a 81-run thrashing at the hands of Kolkata Knight Riders. In the head-to-head record, Bangalore lead Lucknow 2-0.
After winning the toss, Rahul said pacer Mark Wood comes in for Romario Shepherd, with Yash Thakur too missing out.
"Going by the history of the ground. It is a good chasing ground, quite simple and straightforward. It is still home for me," said Rahul.
"I have grown up here and played all my cricket. We got close against CSK trying to chase down 220. The crowd will be getting loud and getting behind their team here," he added.
Bangalore captain Faf du Plessis felt the pitch was dry and added that South Africa left-arm pacer Wayne Parnell has been drafted into the playing eleven to form a four-pronged fast-bowling attack, with all-rounder Mahipal Lomror slotted at number three.
The omissions from the playing eleven for Bangalore are Karn Sharma, Michael Bracewell, and Akash Deep.
"We were 50-50 as to what to do. We did chase last time around. We were thinking of changing it around this time. We are looking forward to this contest," Du Plessis said.
Playing XIs:
Lucknow Super Giants: KL Rahul (captain), Kyle Mayers, Deepak Hooda, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran (wicketkeeper), Krunal Pandya, Jaydev Unadkat, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Mark Wood and Ravi Bishnoi
Substitutes: Ayush Badoni, Swapnil Singh, Krishnappa Gowtham, Prerak Mankad and Daniel Sams
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis (captain), Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik (wicketkeeper), Anuj Rawat, David Willey, Wayne Parnell, Harshal Patel and Mohammed Siraj
Substitutes: Karn Sharma, Suyash Prabhudessai, Akash Deep, Michael Bracewell and Sonu Yadav
