Lucknow the first stop for Kohli and co. as RCB begin string of away games
Super Giants aim to do season double over RCB and consolidate their position on the points table
Big picture - RCB begin long streak of away games
The effect of travel fatigue is underrated. It can't be easy playing IPL games up until midnight and fly out the next day, before that same old routine for another game on the third day.
Form guide
Lucknow Super Giants WLWLW (last five games, most recent first)
Royal Challengers Bangalore LWWLW
Team news - Hazlewood likely for RCB; Stoinis under injury cloud
David Willey could sit out after injuring his foot while batting in RCB's previous game. But the good news is they have Josh Hazlewood fit and ready to replace him. Hazlewood has completed his rehab for an Achilles injury under the franchise and Cricket Australia's supervision.
Impact Player strategy
Super Giants have shown a settled pattern with Amit Mishra coming in as an Impact Player with the ball by replacing a top-order batter like Kyle Mayers, after he's sent down his quota up front.
Harshal Patel's finger injury hasn't made batting easy, while Faf du Plessis continues to manage his rib injury. It's been three games now that they've not used the Impact Player rule to full capacity just so that du Plessis only bats and Harshal only bowls.
Stats that matter - Watch out for Rahul v Siraj
- In IPL 2023, fast bowlers have averaged 3.8 wickets per innings on an average in the eight batting innings here. Spinners, who've had purchase and turn on offer, have been more economical by conceding at 7.2 an over, compared to 7.7 off the quicks.
- The Ekana Stadium is the least favourable IPL 2023 venue in terms of run rate (7.50). Because scoring has been difficult, it's also produced the second-highest balls per six (22.3) in a match.
- Siraj has the second-most powerplay wickets among fast bowlers this season, but KL Rahul, who has tended to start slow, has a favourable match-up. His strike rate of 181 against Siraj is the second-highest against those who've bowled at least 40 T20 balls to him.
Pitch and conditions
Dew hasn't had much of an effect so far in Lucknow, and it's unlikely to change come Monday. Surfaces have been slow and have aided turn. Spinners will yet again have a massive say. RCB would gladly welcome the prospect of bowling to much bigger boundaries. There is also some rain predicted for Monday.The big question
Shashank Kishore is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo