LSG vs PBKS Playing 11: Eyes will be on KL Rahul against Punjab Kings, Lucknow will have to perform all-round.

The IPL 2024 match will be played today between Punjab Kings and Lucknow Supergiants. This match will be played at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium in Lucknow. In this match, eyes will be on Lucknow captain KL Rahul for whom this season is considered very important before the T20 World Cup to be held this year. Lucknow had to face defeat in the last match and this will be only their second match of this season. If Lucknow wants to return to winning ways against Punjab Kings, then it will have to perform better in every department against this team. Punjab started the season with a win against Delhi Capitals but had to face defeat against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the next match. The team led by Shikhar Dhawan would also like to forget the previous defeat and perform well in this match.

Lucknow's performance was better on home ground

Lucknow Supergiants is one of those teams whose performance is better on the home ground, but outside the home ground, the team is unable to make an impact. However, this match against Punjab is to be played on its home ground only. In the last season of IPL, on a bat-friendly pitch, Lucknow's fast bowlers gave 7.66 runs per over, which was the best compared to other teams playing matches at home in IPL 2023. But on the contrary, the performance of Lucknow bowlers outside the home ground was nothing special. Outside the home ground, Lucknow's bowlers had conceded 10.11 runs per over, which was the highest in the fast bowling attack.

Lucknow bowlers could not make an impact against Rajasthan

Lucknow's first match this season was against Rajasthan Royals. In that match, except for Krunal Pandya, all the other bowlers gave away runs and could not impress. Lucknow also missed Mark Wood and David Willey in whose absence LSG's bowling attack looked weak. The responsibility for Lucknow's bowling attack was on Mohsin Khan, Naveen Ul Haq, and Yash Thakur. Spinner Ravi Bishnoi also could not impress much in the initial match.

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The focus will be on Captain Rahul

KL Rahul has returned to the field from IPL after a long time due to injury. After this season of IPL, the T20 World Cup is to be organized in America and the West Indies and Rahul is in the race to make a place in the Indian team for this global tournament. While declaring Rahul fit before the start of the IPL, the BCCI medical team had given him the responsibility of not handling the responsibility of wicket-keeping in some matches, but against Rajasthan, Rahul came on the field only as a wicket-keeper batsman. It is believed that Rahul has decided to play the role of wicketkeeper-batsman keeping the T20 World Cup in mind. Rahul had performed well in the first match and played an inning of 58 runs. However, he failed to lead his team to victory.

Punjab will have to score runs fast in the powerplay.

Punjab Kings, captained by Shikhar Dhawan, will have to score runs quickly in the powerplay. For this, the team's explosive batsman Jonny Bairstow will have to take the responsibility, who has not been able to make an impact in the last two matches. At the same time, Dhawan also needs to speed up his strike rate. Prabhsimran Singh, who played some good innings for the team last season, is also not able to convert his good start into a big innings.

Sam Curran will also have to perform better

All-rounder Sam Curran has been successful as a batsman, but he needs to make the same impact with the ball for his team. Sam Curran's role with the new ball has not been impressive in IPL 2020. Last season, Curran spent 9.66 runs per over, which was 2.79 runs per over more than in 2020.

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