Lucknow:Faf du Plessis is back as captain of the Royal Challengers Bangalore as he won the toss and elected to bat first against Lucknow Super Giants in Match No. 43 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium on Monday.
The last time these two teams met in the competition, Lucknow successfully chased down 213 on the last ball of a high-scoring match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on April 10.
After winning the toss, du Plessis said Australia fast bowler Josh Hazlewood comes in for David Willey, who is now out of the competition due to injury and uncapped India wicketkeeper-batter Anuj Rawat replaces Shahbaz Ahmed in the playing eleven.
"There will be little more turn in the second innings, I feel. I feel much better now. Our squad is well-suited for these conditions. It is just about batting well tonight," he said.
Lucknow skipper K.L. Rahul said off-spin all-rounder K. Gowtham comes into the playing eleven in place of fast bowler Avesh Khan. "It is just going to be hard work on this pitch for both teams."
"Having played here twice, we know that spin will be used more than pace here. Just want to hold our composure during crunch moments. The only thing we spoke about is to not come with a fixed mindset and we gotta bowl well and restrict them to a low total," he said.
Lucknow arrive in Monday's match at their home ground on the back of a 56-run win over Punjab Kings at Mohali. On the other hand, Bangalore enter the first of their five straight-away matches after losing to Kolkata Knight Riders at home by 21 runs.
Playing XIs:
Lucknow Super Giants: KL Rahul (c), Kyle Mayers, Deepak Hooda, Marcus Stoinis, Krunal Pandya, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Krishnappa Gowtham, Ravi Bishnoi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Amit Mishra and Yash Thakur
Substitutes: Ayush Badoni, Daniel Sams, Quinton de Kock, Prerak Mankad, Avesh Khan
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Anuj Rawat, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Suyash Prabhudessai, Wanindu Hasaranga, Karn Sharma, Josh Hazlewood and Mohammed Siraj
Harshal Patel, Sonu Yadav, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Michael Bracewell, Shahbaz Ahmed