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Lucknow Super Giants lost their match against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Monday by 18 runs at the Ekana stadium in Lucknow. The loss would sting more to the LSG camp as their captain KL Rahul suffered a thigh muscle injury when he was chasing the ball on the cover boundary in the second over of the match. Apart from the LSG camp, this would have also rung the alarm bells in the BCCI as the opener is in India's WTC final squad against Australia.
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There is still no update on the extent of KL Rahul's injury, but he will most probably miss a few games and play it safe as the WTC will be the main priority.
In the absence of KL Rahul, Krunal Pandya took over and captained the side against RCB on Monday. The senior all-rounder is more likely to continue leading the side till KL Rahul comes back. On the other hand, Nicholas Pooran is also an option as he has captained the West Indies national team earlier but since Krunal Pandya took over in the last match, he is expected to continue leading the side as a stand-in captain.
Quinton De Kock has a ton of captaincy experience with the Proteas and in the SA 20 but is yet to feature in this season’s IPL. The South African left-hander is likely to replace Rahul as an opener in the starting 11 of LSG.
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Back to the game, Lucknow restricted RCB to just 126 in 20 overs on a difficult wicket and had a tough task of chasing it down without their captain. The Bangalore bowling lineup strangled LSG as they were bowled out for 108 with no batsman crossing the 30-run mark. Lucknow will now face Chennai Super Kings at the Ekana Stadium on Wednesday, May 3.
