Lucknow, May 15 (IANS) Lucknow Super Giants have brought in Akash Singh, Abdul Samad and Mukul Choudhary as skipper Rishabh Pant won the toss and elected to bowl first against Chennai Super Kings at the BRSABV Ekana Cricket Stadium here on Friday.

A win for CSK will help them enter the top four phase in the points table and further boost their chances of sealing a playoffs spot. LSG, meanwhile, are already out of the race for the playoffs and would look for a victory at home to salvage some pride in a forgettable season.

After winning the toss, Pant said, “The wicket is looking a little bit tacky, so just did not need to go out there and bat ourselves. As a team, we have a lot to achieve. We are a team, we run on trust, and that is something we are looking forward to. We are trying a few things for the next season for sure. And just looking to give our 200 percent regardless of anything.

“Definitely, there is no running away from the way we have played this season. But at the same time, there are a lot of positives that we can take because we are a little frustrated as a team as we know we have it in the team to do well.

“We can make it happen and sometimes things don’t work your way, but at the same time, no complaints from that side. We’ve got to still play good cricket and look to improve ourselves each and every day..”

CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad said Spencer Johnson makes his debut for the franchise in place of injured Jamie Overton, while Gurjapneet Singh comes in for Akeal Hosein during the side’s bowling innings.

“It is a privilege to wear the yellow jersey. It is a venue where you have to bat and bowl well. There is a bit of moisture to start, but if we start well and get to 170-180 then it would be a challenging total.

“It is tough, you need to keep changing a lot, but it is something which we cannot control but also gives an opportunity to the players, Urvil coming in, Mukesh coming in, it helps them grow and whenever we have a good squad, we deliver. It has been a must-win for a while now and we want to take it one game at a time.”

Playing XIs

Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad (captain), Sanju Samson (wk), Urvil Patel, Kartik Sharma, Dewald Brevis, Shivam Dube, Prashant Veer, Anshul Kamboj, Spencer Johnson, Noor Ahmad, and Mukesh Choudhar

Impact Substitutes: Gurjapneet Singh, Akeal Hosein, Sarfaraz Khan, Matthew Short, and Matt Henry

Lucknow Super Giants: Mitchell Marsh, Nicholas Pooran, Aiden Markram, Rishabh Pant (captain & wk), Mukul Choudhary, Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Mohammed Shami, Mayank Yadav, Akash Singh, and Prince Yadav

Impact Substitutes: Josh Inglis, M Siddharth, Digvesh Rathi, Himmat Singh, and Ayush Badoni

–IANS

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