New Chandigarh, April 19 (IANS) Left-arm spinner M Siddharth comes in for Lucknow Super Giants as captain Rishabh Pant won the toss and elected to bowl first against an unchanged Punjab Kings at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium on Sunday.

PBKS arrive into their home game after a strong win over Mumbai Indians extended their unbeaten record, whereas LSG come under a bit of pressure after suffering back-to-back defeats.

After winning the toss, Pant said Siddharth comes in place of mystery spinner Digvesh Rathi. “Coming here, we want them to set a total for us. They’ve been one of the best team in the tournament, but at the same time, it gives us that freedom that we can play more freely with them. Generally, I feel, playing for 220 runs is better than playing for 200 sometimes. Much better (on his elbow injury),” he said.

PBKS skipper Shreyas Iyer said he didn’t mind losing the toss. “I feel it’s a great challenge for us since we haven’t batted first so far. I had mentioned that when you are getting better it’s about us vs us. A comprehensive win is what need to fulfil.”

The boundary dimensions are compact: 61 metres square boundary on the off side, 70 metres towards square leg region, 73 metres straight down the ground, and 74 metres to cow corner.

Abhinav Mukund and Eoin Morgan opined the grass covering and occasional cracks on the surface means there’s help for fast bowlers, and with the curator confirming no dew, so the toss will not be decisive, though a high-scoring contest maybe on cards.

Playing XIs:

Lucknow Super Giants: Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, Rishabh Pant (captain and wk), Ayush Badoni, Nicholas Pooran, Mukul Choudhary, Mohammed Shami, Avesh Khan, Prince Yadav, M Siddharth, and Mohsin Khan

Impact Substitutes: Himmat Singh, Abdul Samad, Matthew Breetzke, Mayank Yadav, and Digvesh Rathi

Punjab Kings: Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Priyansh Arya, Cooper Connolly, Shreyas Iyer (captain), Shashank Singh, Nehal Wadhera, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Arshdeep Singh, and Yuzvendra Chahal

Impact Substitutes: Vyshak Vijaykumar, Harpreet Brar, Suyansh Shedge, Yash Thakur, and Vishnu Vinod

–IANS

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