Venue: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
Time: 7:30 PM IST
Average score at venue (1st inns): 163
Win percentage while batting first: 32.56%
Pitch conditions:
- The pitch at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai can be expected to be favourable to fast bowlers at the start of the contest with the surface being fresh and sporting fresh cover of grass.
- The spinners will also have a crucial role to play in order to contain the opposition batsmen who will be challenged to bring out their best at this venue in terms of finding the right balance between attack and defense.
- Fast bowlers have taken 70.56% of dismissals at the Wankhede stadium while spinners have got only 29.44% of the fallen wickets.
Weather prediction:
It will be partly cloudy on Sunday evening in Mumbai with temperature hitting a high of 30°C at around 8:30 PM local time, following which it will drop down by 1°C. The humidity levels will be around 65-70% during the match hours.
HEAD-TO-HEAD RECORD (overall)
Matches played: -
Lucknow won: -
Gujarat won: -
No result: -
Top 3 players from Lucknow: KL Rahul, Avesh Khan, Quinton de Kock
Top 3 players from Gujarat: Hardik Pandya, Shubman Gill, Rashid Khan
Top picks for H2H/WTA conTest (top 5 players each):
Top 5 players from Lucknow: KL Rahul, Avesh Khan, Quinton de Kock, Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi
Top 5 players from Gujarat: Hardik Pandya, Shubman Gill, Matthew Wade, Rashid Khan, Lockie Ferguson
Q & A:
Should I pick more bowlers, batsmen or all-rounders?
As witnessed in the first match at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday night, fast bowlers will carry great value in the second game at this venue as well. The pitch is expected to support fast bowlers since it will have fresh cover of green grass, while batsmen will have to adjust to the bounce as well as movement off the surface initially. There may not be a lot for the spin bowlers at this stage of the Indian T20 Cricket League since all venues are expected to have green-top wickets owing to their workload, spinners can still play a crucial role of containment like Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine did for Kolkata against Chennai in the first match. Meanwhile, adding more to batting strength while carrying a strong pace attack will be the right approach for this contest.
From which team should I pick more players in my XI? Which team is stronger?
Lucknow and Gujarat will be facing off for the first time in the history of Indian T20 Cricket League as the match on Monday night in Mumbai will also be the first time that they will be seen in action after a long period of preparations that included finding the right coaching staff, scouting talent and drawing plans for the tournament. Both the teams have exciting players and it remains to be seen how quickly they get together and find momentum as a team. Gujarat will look for fireworks from their captain Hardik Pandya, who will have to bat higher in the order that he used to for his previous team Mumbai. There are other exciting players such as Afghanistan’s Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rashid Khan, Vijay Shankar, Matthew Wade, Lockie Ferguson and Mohammed Shami to name a few. On the other hand, Lucknow will hope that their captain KL Rahul continues to score big runs the way he has in the last few seasons of the competition, whereas the others key members of the side Quinton de Kock, Deepak Hooda, Kunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi, Marcus Stoinis fire in unison.
MORE INFORMATION: Hardik Pandya will be taking the field on Monday night at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai but not in the colours he used to until last year. The discarded India all-rounder has been trusted with the captaincy responsibility at Gujarat, and it remains to be seen if he is 100% fit enough to bowl and carry the workload that he will have in this long league round. Rahul, his counterpart in the Lucknow ranks, will hope for better returns for himself as well as for the team after having a rather disappointing run with Punjab particularly in the last two seasons. Both Gujarat and Lucknow have some very exciting players in their ranks but the challenge would be to find momentum and best playing combination as soon as possible.
Changes in squad (if any): NO
LIKELY XIs:
GUJARAT: Shubman Gill, Matthew Wade (wk), Wriddhiman Saha, Abhinav Manohar, Hardik Pandya (c), Rahul Tewatia, David Miller, Rashid Khan, R Sai Kishore, Lockie Ferguson, Mohammad Shami.
LUCKNOW: 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.
FANTASY XI: KL Rahul (c&wk), Shubman Gill, Quinton De Kock, Wriddhiman Saha, Hardik Pandya, Deepak Hooda, Ankit Rajput, Rashid Khan, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Mohammad Shami.
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Lucknow, Gujarat eye winning start to Indian T20 Cricket League
The two newest teams in the Indian T20 Cricket League 2022, Lucknow and Gujarat, will face off at the iconic Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on Monday night in what will be their first match ever in the history of the tournament.
Having joined the Indian T20 Cricket League bandwagon ahead of the 15th edition, both Lucknow and Gujarat have been able to build up strong squads along with rich and experienced coaching staff to give themselves the best chance of going the distance this year.
Both the teams have exciting and promising Indian players as captain — the dashing Hardik Pandya will be shouldering the captaincy responsibility at Gujarat whereas Rahul will be handling the role of captaincy at Lucknow — having done so for Punjab over the last few seasons.
While Pandya has had his issues with fitness and form which have led to his exclusion from the Indian cricket team, Rahul has seen his career graph reach unprecedented heights as he has been elevated to leadership responsibilities with the national team as well.
Both the players are in their prime and will be looking forward to making the most of the opportunity to prove their talent and leadership skills, given that there are several India players auditioning for the long-term leadership role of the national team as well.
Gujarat have some really exciting players in the form of Shubman Gill, Matthew Wade, Abhinav Manohar, Rahul Tewatia, or Sai Kishore, Rashid Khan and Mohammed Shami. But their biggest concern would be to add more strength to their middle-order, which looks tad brittle on the paper.
Tewatia has joined the Gujarat ranks after spending considerable time at Rajasthan, and he will look to shed the tag of ‘one-match wonder’ with consistent performances for his new side.
It is expected that Hardik Pandya will have to bat higher in the order for Gujarat given that their middle-order does not have ample amount of experience.
At the top of the order, it is a three-way battle between Gill, Gurbaz and Australia's Wade, who played a match-winning knock in the last T20 World Cup against Pakistan to put his side into the final.
Gujarat have a great bowling line-up which includes the likes of Mohammed Shami, Rashid Khan, R Sai Kishore, experience domestic Indian cricketer Pradeep Sangwan, all-rounder Vijay Shankar, Indian all-rounder Jayant Yadav, West Indies is Alzarri Joseph and Dominic Drakes along with New Zealand’s Lockie Ferguson.
But with South Africa veteran David Miller present, they can hope for fireworks from their batting department which also consists of Wriddhiman Saha, Abhinav Manohar and Gurkeerat Singh Mann.
On the other hand, Lucknow have a formidable line-up with some of the most successful players in the competition featuring in their ranks.
Apart from captain KL Rahul, Lucknow have the likes of Avesh Khan, Quinton de Kock, Jason Holder, Deepak Hooda, Evin Lewis, Kyle Mayers, Manish Pandey, Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Krishnappa Gowtham, Shahbaz Nadeem to pick from.
