Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson won the toss and opted to bat first against KL Rahul’s Lucknow Super Giants on Sunday, in the second game.
“We want to have a bat. That's been our strength throughout the tournament, we'd like to stick with that. Couple of changes - Jimmy Neesham comes in place of Rassie, Obed McCoy comes in for Kuldeep Sen. Feel that's the best combination to go for this game. In a tournament like IPL, you are bound to play some good games, you are bound to lose a few. It's important to keep a balanced state of mind for every player. That was the chat. Not at all (when asked if they spoke about qualifications),” Samson said at the toss.
“I wanted to bowl first. Looks like a nice wicket. You want to have an honest chat when games like that happen. You don't want to run away from it, you want to learn from mistakes like that. Happened at a time when we were doing really well. It was a bit of a surprise for everybody. That's the game, always keeps reminding us that we need to turn up every game and give it a 100-120%. We had that chat and everyone agreed that a game like that can happen. We probably didn't bat smartly and that's the only reason. We've trained well in the last couple of days. Karan Sharma misses out, Ravi Bishnoi comes in. We've come here again and it looks like a good wicket, felt comfortable with the bowling group that we've had. Good challenge for them to keep the opposition to a lower total and give us a good chance to go out there and get the runs,” KL Rahul said at the toss.
Playing XI
Lucknow Super Giants (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), KL Rahul(c), Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya, Ayush Badoni, Marcus Stoinis, Jason Holder, Mohsin Khan, Ravi Bishnoi, Dushmantha Chameera, Avesh Khan
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w/c), Devdutt Padikkal, James Neesham, Riyan Parag, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal, Obed McCoy
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