Lucknow, Apr 7 (IANS): Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) won the toss and elected to bat first against Gujarat Titans in the Match 21 of the Indian Premier League 2024 at the Ekana Cricket Stadium, here.

Titans' wicketkeeper-batter Wriddhiman Saha misses out due to a back spasm as BR Sharath makes his debut and Spencer Johnson comes in for Azmatullah Omarzai.

Lucknow Super Giants captain KL Rahul said, “We are going to bat first. Looks like a good wicket, we batted first in the last two games, defended pretty well. They have a better record against us, but they have been a better team. We are playing with the same team. It's still his (Mayank Yadav's) first season, a few injuries have been hard on his body. For a 21 old boy he's very professional. It's important for us to manage him. We have some good fast bowlers and we have Morne and others to look after him.”

Gujarat Titans captain Shubman Gill, said, “We would have bowled first, so happy. We were top on the game for 33 overs of the match, the last 7 overs didn't go in our favour. We have a couple of changes. Saha misses out due to a back spasm and BR Sharath makes his debut for us. Spencer comes back in for Omarzai. We got to forget what has happened in the previous match.”

LSG are placed on the fourth position in the points table with two wins in three matches while GT are on the seventh position with two wins and as many losses in four matches.

Playing XIs:

Lucknow Super Giants: Quinton de Kock, KL Rahul(w/c), Devdutt Padikkal, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi, Yash Thakur, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mayank Yadav

Substitutes: Manimaran Siddharth, Deepak Hooda, Amit Mishra, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Arshad Khan

Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill(c), Sharath BR(w), Sai Sudharsan, Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, Umesh Yadav, Spencer Johnson, Darshan Nalkande, Mohit Sharma

Substitutes: Kane Williamson, Abhinav Manohar, Matthew Wade, Manav Suthar, Jayant Yadav