Spin test awaits rampaging Mumbai Indians in Lucknow
Their batters have been ruling the roost in the IPL, but will come up against significantly tougher conditions
Vishal Dikshit
15-May-2023 • 3 hrs ago
Big picture: Will Mumbai Indians go hard against LSG's spinners?
From the high-scoring highway of Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai Indians now fly to the dusty turner of Lucknow; in terms of run rates this IPL, it's a journey from the fastest scoring ground straight to the slowest.
The most interesting aspect of that journey is that Mumbai have been chasing down one 200-plus total after another, and on Tuesday they will play on a pitch that is much slower, tougher to score on, and turns much more, and they will have to adjust to the alien conditions right when the playoff race is getting hotter. Mumbai and Lucknow Super Giants are neck and neck at third and fourth places, only separated by a point, and whoever loses on Tuesday will have to depend on other results to qualify.
How the Mumbai batters counter LSG spinners will be key. For example, Ishan Kishan has been dismissed for a combined five times in the IPL while facing 23 balls from the duo of Amit Mishra and Ravi Bishnoi. Will Mumbai still go ahead with their crash-bang approach or will they reconsider their strategy a little?
Another question for Mumbai will be whether they bring in a third spinner in the XI to accompany Piyush Chawla and Kumar Kartikeya.
Super Giants, meanwhile, don't have a great record to boast of in Lucknow. They have won just two of the five completed games on their home ground, and the last of those came more than a month ago. What bodes well for them, though, is that their batting is really coming together and the likes of Nicholas Pooran and Marcus Stoinis will want to go big again to match Mumbai's hard-hitting prowess.
Form guide
Lucknow Super Giants WLLWL (last five completed games, most recent first)
Mumbai Indians WWLWW
Mumbai Indians WWLWW
Impact Player strategy
Super Giants can sub Mishra and Ayush Badoni for each other depending on whether they bat or bowl first.
Lucknow Super Giants (probable XII): 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Kyle Mayers, 3 Krunal Pandya (capt), 4 Marcus Stoinis, 5 Nicholas Pooran, 6 Ayush Badoni, 7 Deepak Hooda, 8 Ravi Bishnoi, 9 Avesh Khan, 10 Mohsin Khan, 11 K Gowtham, 12 Amit Mishra
Mumbai could bring in offspinner Hrithik Shokeen to target LSG's left-hand batters. Their impact strategy could be to sub Tilak Varma or Suryakumar Yadav for one of the frontline bowlers.
Mumbai Indians (probable XII): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Ishan Kishan (wk), 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Tilak Varma/Vishnu Vinod, 5 Cameron Green, 6 Nehal Wadhera, 7 Tim David, 8 Chris Jordan, 9 Piyush Chawla, 10 Jason Behrendorff, 11 Kumar Kartikeya, 12 Hrithik Shokeen
The big question
Which team is likely to score runs more easily in Lucknow?
892 votesMumbai: their hard-hitting batters can do it on any pitch
LSG: they have the home ground advantage along with the fiery middle order
Stats that matter
Pitch and conditions
The black-soil surface in Lucknow which assists spinners might be the only way to stop Mumbai from scoring 200, but even 150-odd is a winning score here batting first. Teams batting first and second have won three games each on this ground, which means the toss may not play a very crucial role unless there's dew later in the evening.
Vishal Dikshit is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo