Rahul faces Lucknow Super Giants for the first time since the split
Both teams have been in good form in IPL 2025
Himanshu Agrawal
21-Apr-2025
Big picture: KL Rahul against his former side
Last IPL, KL Rahul was into his third season at Lucknow Super Giants. Up until the point they had to face Sunrisers Hyderabad, things were going okay. And then in one night - actually in just 9.4 overs - everything broke. Live visuals of the LSG team owner chastising his own captain went around the world. There was no coming back from that.
Rahul is with a different team now and his meeting with Sanjiv Goenka would've happened sooner, but he missed the first time Delhi Capitals played LSG for the birth of his child. Former players coming back to hurt their old teams has been a theme in IPL 2025; Rahul has had a piece of that action already when he made a match-winning 93 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Will he be similarly motivated on Tuesday night?
LSG replaced Rahul with Rishabh Pant and he is still finding his way. The new captain has scored only 106 runs in seven innings. But despite his low returns, injuries to their bowling attack, and starting with a loss against DC, LSG seem to have exceeded expectations. They have won five of their last seven games, including four really tight ones. A win in Lucknow would help LSG displace DC at No. 2 on the points table.
Form guide
Lucknow Super Giants: WLWWW (last five matches, most recent first)
Delhi Capitals: LWLWW
Delhi Capitals: LWLWW
In the spotlight: Abdul Samad and Mitchell Starc
Playing as a finisher for LSG, Abdul Samad has scored 111 runs at a strike rate of 222. In their last game, Samad smacked Sandeep Sharma for four sixes in the final over to finish with 30 off just 10 balls. Earlier in the season, Samad also successfully went after Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel and Adam Zampa. With all the attention on LSG's top three and on Pant, it is Samad who has propelled his side from down the order.
With an economy rate of 10.68, Mitchell Starc is the second-most expensive bowler among those who've bowled at least 25 overs this season. He had started with eight wickets in two games, but has struck only twice in five matches since. But last week, it was primarily due to Starc's reverse-swinging yorkers that DC first forced Rajasthan Royals into a tie, before winning the Super Over.
Team news: Will Mayank Yadav finally play?
Mayank Yadav was fit for LSG's previous game, against RR, and started as an Impact Sub option. But three early wickets batting first meant LSG tapped Ayush Badoni instead. It's likely he'll be returning to action tomorrow.
Lucknow Super Giants (probable): 1 Aiden Markram, 2 Mitchell Marsh, 3 Nicholas Pooran, 4 Ayush Badoni, 5 Rishabh Pant (capt & wk), 6 David Miller, 7 Abdul Samad, 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Ravi Bishnoi, 10 Prince Yadav/Mayank Yadav, 11 Digvesh Rathi, 12 Avesh Khan
The injured Faf du Plessis is recovering well, and hit the nets for a batting session, but nothing has been decided on his inclusion yet.
Delhi Capitals (probable): 1 Abishek Porel, 2 Faf du Plessis/Donovan Ferreira/Sameer Rizvi, 3 Karun Nair, 4 KL Rahul (wk), 5 Axar Patel (capt), 6 Tristan Stubbs, 7 Ashutosh Sharma, 8 Vipraj Nigam, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Mohit Sharma, 12 Mukesh Kumar
The big question
LSG's Digvesh Rathi and DC's Vipraj Nigam are two Indian youngsters who have made a name for themselves this IPL. Numbers wise, there isn't much to separate them: while Rathi has bagged nine wickets at an average of 26.44, Nigam has seven wickets at 27. Expect one or both of them to have a say if the pitch in Lucknow helps spinners.
Pitch and conditions
It will be a red-soil pitch at Ekana Stadium on Tuesday. LSG had played Punjab Kings (PBKS) on the same kind of surface earlier this season, and lost by eight wickets. After that game, LSG's mentor Zaheer Khan was left so frustrated he said "it looked like, you know, it was Punjab curator out here".
Stats and trivia: Pooran vs Kuldeep
- Forty batters have faced at least 100 balls this season, and Pant's strike rate of 98.14 is the lowest. Nicholas Pooran, though, leads the charts with 205.58.
- Pooran started this IPL by bashing 75 from only 30 balls against DC. But facing Kuldeep, he managed only 10 runs off 6 deliveries. Kuldeep has the wood over Pooran, who has scored only 74 runs from 70 balls in T20 cricket, and has fallen to the wristspinner five times.
- DC's entire top seven against GT - Abishek Porel, Karun Nair, Rahul, Axar Patel, Tristan Stubbs, Ashutosh Sharma and Nigam - have a strike rate of at least 147 this season.
- DC have so far used four opening pairs this season, the most by any side. Their average first-wicket stand of 21.28 is the lowest of the 10 teams.
Himanshu Agrawal is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo