Punjab Kings bowling fast bowling coach James Hopes vouched for home advantage in cricket ahead of his side’s IPL 2025 match against Lucknow Super Giants here at the Ekana Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.
“I think it’s fine to have a home-ground advantage. If that home ground advantage is you have a spin-heavy attack and you can play on a spinning wicket, that’s fine.
At the end of the day, you only play one game there [at an away ground]. You’ve just got to prepare accordingly and try to combat that,” said Hopes at the pre-match press conference.
Hopes also reckoned the Lucknow pitch will be a competitive one while admitting that it might play out in line with the home team’s bowling combination.
“At the moment, it looks pretty good. It’s changed a lot over the last few days. We know that they [LSG] have had their injuries on the pace front. We know they were spin-heavy in the first game. We’ll just have to wait until tomorrow night to see whether they go spin heavy again,” added Hopes.
ALSO READ | Buoyant Lucknow Super Giants set to kick off home campaign as it takes on Punjab Kings
LSG all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed opined that the Ekana surface will provide for an even battle between bat and ball.
“I feel this pitch will help both batters and bowlers. Also, this is a big ground, which will help the bowlers. It might aid pacers in the beginning, but batters will have their chances later on.
Compared to other grounds, I think Ekana will favour the bowlers. It might be high-scoring, but it won’t be like it is in Hyderabad or other grounds,” said Shahbaz.