A buoyant Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) will look to kick off its IPL 2025 home campaign with a win as it hosts Punjab Kings (PBKS) at the Ekana Cricket Stadium here on Tuesday.
LSG comes into the fixture on the back of a stunning away win against Sunrisers Hyderabad, in a game where the pre-match odds were stacked heavily against it.
Punjab Kings too has wind on its sails, having clinched a win in its season opener against Gujarat Titans in a high-scoring thriller in Ahmedabad a week ago.
The centrepiece of the Kings’ pre-match planning for Tuesday will likely be LSG’s batting talisman Nicholas Pooran, who leads the season’s Orange Cap race.
The West Indian batter has been in rampaging touch in IPL 2025, scoring 145 runs in two games at a staggering strike rate of 258.92, whipping 13 sixes and 12 fours.
Pooran’s incandescence at No.3 has been backed by opener Mitchell Marsh’s steady hand. The pair has accumulated twin fifties each to cover up for the rest of the LSG batting unit, including skipper Rishabh Pant, who has aggregated just 15 in his two innings with his new team.
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On Tuesday, Pooran and Marsh will be up against a Kings bowling attack which nearly fumbled a 244-run defence against the Titans. It managed to eke out an 11-run win only thanks to a spell of laser-sharp death bowling from Vyshak Vijay Kumar.
To make it worse for the Kings, Pooran enjoys a sturdy match-up against Yuzvendra Chahal, their lead spinner. In all T20s, the left-handed batter has scored 127 runs against the leggie at a strike rate of 167.10, while being dismissed just once.
The away team, though, could use the off-spin of Glenn Maxwell to nullify Pooran, who has scored just 16 runs in 16 balls in T20s against the Australian bowler.
Kings’ batting efforts will be led by captain Shreyas Iyer, who made an impressive team debut with a free-stroking 42-ball 97 against the Titans.
“His batting is world-class. With what he’s done at the Champions Trophy, he can now be considered one of the best short-format players in the world,” said PBKS fast bowling coach James Hopes.
Shreyas will fancy his chances against an inexperienced, but high on confidence, LSG bowling attack. Led by the wily Shardul Thakur, the Super Giants bowlers punched above their weight to contain Sunrisers’ vaunted batting unit in the previous game.
Both teams will be wary of the generally sluggish nature of the Lucknow surface. Since 2023, no ground has had a lower batting run rate in the IPL than the Ekana (8.17).
Spin has also been the superior defensive option at the Ekana. In the 14 IPL games played here, spinners have gone at just 7.07 runs per over, while for pacers the corresponding number is 8.17.