Karunesh Kumar Rai
PBKS will take on LSG this Saturday at the Ekana Stadium, Lucknow. This ground has historically been seen to have favoured spin bowling and slow variations by fast bowlers. Both the teams have lost their previous encounters, and will look to win 2 points in this match. When we talk about the hosts, LSG has a very decent team and is almost balanced in all the departments. In the lights of KL Rahul and Quinton De Cock LSG have a very strong opening pair, followed by Devdutt Padikkal after this classic trio LSG have big hitters who apply finishing touch Deepak Hooda,Nicholas Pooran, and Marcus Stoinis. LSG have decent all-rounders as-well Krunal Pandya and Krishnappa Gowtham. In the bowling department they have Shivam Mavi, Mohsin Khan and Naveen-Ul-Haq followed by the veteran wrist spinner Amit Mishra and Ravi Bishnoi. LSG have quality in batting but their major set-back is KL Rahul’s low strike rate. Even though 2 fifties in the last match LSG didn’t cross the margin and lost by 20 runs and their front line bowlers Mohsin Khan and Naveen Ul Haq had been on a higher economy rate of more than 10 in the previous match. Devdutt Padikkal is coming with a decent domestic season but went for a duck in the previous match. When we talk about PBKS they have a very strong bowling line-up, in-front they have Arshdeep Singh and Kagiso Rabada followed by Sam Curran and Harshal patel. They have a very quality spin attack as well with Harpreet Brar and Rahul Chahar all these bowlers know how to purchase wickets they can be a sometimes slightly on higher economy side but will pick up wickets. PBKS lacks behind in their batting, till now except of Shikhar Dhawan none of the pure batsmen have crossed 40 runs this season. PBKS have big names in their batting like Jonny Bairstow and Liam Livingstone but both the players are not in good touch. Sam Curran has seen performing but he is also not very consistent, Jitesh Sharma has been picked for his big hitting abilities but he also haven’t scored any big runs this season, both the teams have quality in their spin bowling and keeping the Lucknow wicket in mind which is a slow track LSG are the favourites to win this match.
