Lucknow Super Giants vs Delhi Capitals preview: Probable XI, key players, avg score and more

Kyle Mayers is likely to open the batting with KL Rahul in the initial few games though Lucknow will be bolstered by the presence of English express pacer Mark Wood.

For Delhi, the onus will rest on the likes of Prithvi Shaw and Sarfaraz Khan to have big seasons with the bat and make up for Pant’s absence. Khan, who is coming on the back of an incredible domestic season for Mumbai, will also be donning the gloves for Delhi this year.

KL Rahul (c), Kyle Mayers, Deepak Hooda, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Ayush Badoni, Manan Vohra, Krunal Pandya, Jaydev Unadkat, Ravi Bishnoi, Mark Wood.

David Warner (c), Prithvi Shaw, Mitchell Marsh, Sarfaraz Khan (wk), Rilee Rossouw, Rovman Powell, Axar Patel, Lalit Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Chetan Sakariya.

The Australian all-rounder brings a fine balance to the Lucknow playing XI with his all-round skills. He can hold the batting line-up together by steadying the innings if required.

The 33-year-old has a tremendous strike rate of 147.34 in 51 T20Is and that suggests that he can take any bowling attack to the cleaners when required. Stoinis can extract decent movement with the ball at the start and is quite wily with mixing up his lengths and pace towards the backend of innings.

A national call-up has eluded the Mumbai middle-order mainstay so far but he could use this IPL and Pant’s absence to make a strong case to represent India in front of the national selectors. If he can bring his domestic form to the IPL, Khan can really do both the Capitals and himself a very big favour.

The average first innings score in nine T20Is in this stadium is 151, which is an indication that this game could present a good contest between the bat and the ball.

The match will start at 7:30 PM IST and it will be telecast live on the Star Sports network. Online viewers can also tune into the action via the Jio Cinema app.