Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Lucknow Super Giants captain Rishabh Pant won the toss and opted to bowl against Ishan Kishan-led Sunrisers Hyderabad in their IPL clash on Sunday.LSG, who lost their opening match of the season to Delhi Capitals, made one change to their playing XI, bringing in Manimaran Siddharth in place of Anrich Nortje.“We are looking to bowl first. The wicket is good, but at the same time, you know, their main strength is batting. So, let them bat first. We can put them under pressure in the second innings. We keep on coming here every year, that’s not a new challenge. But at the same time, this is one team which can hurt you well. But at the same time, whoever plays the better cricket will win,” Pant said.
“(On the conditions) It looks like a good wicket for sure. But at the same time, there is something in the wicket. After the powerplay, I think it might stick into the wicket as much. The ball will get older and it’s going to be harder to score. Just one change, Sid (Manimaran Siddharth) comes in for Nortje. (Will you open today?) We’ll see, we’ll see,” he added.Sunrisers Hyderabad, who lost their opener to Royal Challengers Bengaluru before bouncing back against Kolkata Knight Riders, also made changes to their side.Kishan brought in England all-rounder Liam Livingstone, who was signed for Rs 13 crore at the IPL 2026 auction, along with Harshal Patel.“(Playing in Hyderabad) Very happy. It’s always good to get your home support and the crowd loves the SRH team. So yeah, very happy to be here. There are just two changes. Livingstone comes in and Harshal Patel comes in. Harshal Patel, he’s done well whenever he’s bowled here. And Livi, giving him an opportunity to use his off-spin as well against the left-handers,” Kishan said.“In T20 especially, execution is the most important thing. You need to be in a good headspace, calm and try to save as many runs as we can. So just plan well and execute your balls. And I think let’s see how it goes from there. It’s really important for us to get these two points. But at the same time, we need to be calm, take one match at a time. And that is the whole plan. Be in a good headspace, like I said earlier, and just play your best game possible,” he added.Teams:Sunrisers Hyderabad: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (w/c), Heinrich Klaasen, Liam Livingstone, Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Shivang Kumar, Harshal Patel, and Jaydev Unadkat.Lucknow Super Giants: Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Abdul Samad, Mukul Choudhary, Manimaran Siddharth, Avesh Khan, Mohammed Shami, Digvesh Singh Rathi, and Prince Yadav.Here are the Impact substitutes for both the teams:Sunrisers Hyderabad Impact subs: Eshan Malinga, Salil Arora, David Payne, Shivam Mavi, Zeeshan AnsariLucknow Super Giants Impact subs: Ayush Badoni, Matthew Breetzke, Shahbaz Ahmed, Anrich Nortje, Himmat Singh
