Rishabh Pant opening experiment on cards, Rahul Chahar could make Sunrisers debut: SRH vs LSG likely XIs
Thursday will see a match between two teams which had heavily contrasting fortunes in their first matches.
The IPL 2025 season is well and truly here, as teams begin the second round of fixtures and begin putting their campaigns into place. Thursday will see a match between two teams with heavily contrasting fortunes in their first matches. Sunrisers Hyderabad piled on 286 runs against Rajasthan Royals, continuing this season as they played in the last, winning by 44 runs. Conversely, Lucknow Super Giants failed to defend 209, losing to Delhi Capitals in the first bonafide thriller of the year.
SRH stay on at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, while LSG make the short trek over from Vizag. These are two teams whose strengths lie in their batting departments, with some of the most fearsome power hitters in the sport. Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Heinrich Klaasen, Rishabh Pant, Nicholas Pooran, David Miller — and the list doesn’t stop there for either.
With that in mind, expect runs, and plenty of them. If there ever was a match to see a team cross 300 in an IPL game, this is it, on the flat track of Uppal, particularly with LSG’s injury-ridden bowling attack. But games like these do have the tendency to surprise you, and none of the batters on either side will be taking it for granted.
LSG were on fire in the first two-thirds of their batting innings against DC, with Mitchell Marsh and Pooran smoking boundaries all over the ground to give themselves a platform. However, it was a tame end to their innings, leaving them 20-30 runs short of what they would have expected.
There isn’t much room for flexibility for LSG, so they might take in a very similar team that was subjected to the Ashutosh Sharma show. However, expect some changes in the batting order. There have been calls for Rishabh Pant to open the batting, and that remains a possibility as the captain tries to get the best out of himself.
Don’t expect changes for SRH either, even though they have options. They did concede 242 against RR, so might look to beef up their bowling with someone like Rahul Chahar, but otherwise the demands will be more of the same. It was a relatively quiet day for Abhishek and Klaasen, but Ishan Kishan showed off why he fits this team like a glove at number three. How do teams cope with the pure hitting power prevalent in their batting order? This roughshod, threadbare LSG bowling might not have the answers.
Nevertheless, LSG did have DC down three wickets in their first ten deliveries, thanks in no small part to Shardul Thakur finding some sort of purchase. More of the same will be required from him against the Abhishek/Head opening duo, for damage limitation as much as anything. But more will be needed from Ravi Bishnoi in particular, who was extremely poor against DC and stands to receive more punishment if he doesn’t find the crucial rhythm.
SRH predicted XI: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Aniket Verma, Abhinav Manohar, Pat Cummins (c), Harshal Patel, Mohammed Shami, Simarjeet Singh
LSG predicted XI: Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant (c&wk), Nicholas Pooran, Aidan Markram, David Miller, Ayush Badoni, Shardul Thakur, Shahbaz Ahmed, Prince Yadav, Digvesh Rathi, Ravi Bishnoi
