LSG's Pant opts to bat first; Mayank and Suryavanshi among potential impact players

At 14, Vaibhav Suryavanshi could become the youngest to make his IPL debut. Rajasthan Royals' stand-in captain Riyan Parag said that Suryavanshi is slated to replace the injured Sanju Samson in Rajasthan Royals' XI against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). However, with LSG captain Rishabh Pant winning the toss instead and opting to bat in Jaipur, Suryavanshi's official debut would have to wait, as he finds himself on the bench in RR's bowl-first XI.

Pant said he opted to bat since he felt the pitch was "on the drier side". He also felt dew was unlikely to be a factor. LSG are looking to bounce back from a defeat to Chennai Super Kings in their previous game. They brought in fast bowler Prince Yadav for Akash Deep in a like-for-like change in their bat-first XI.

LSG could also unleash Mayank Yadav, among the fastest bowlers in India, after he made it to their impact player list for the first time this season. Mayank was recovering at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru till recently owing to a lumbar stress injury.

Royals are currently eighth and are looking to bounce back from three successive losses. LSG are fifth with four wins in seven matches, and can jump into the top three with a win tonight.

Playing XIs:

RR bowl-first XI: 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 Shubham Dubey, 3 Riyan Parag (capt), 4 Nitish Rana, 5 Dhruv Jurel (wk), 6 Shimron Hetmyer, 7 Wanindu Hasaranga, 8 Jofra Archer, 9 Maheesh Theekshana, 10 Sandeep Sharma, 11 Tushar Deshpande

Impact players: Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Yudhvir Singh, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Kunal Singh Rathore

LSG bat-first XI: 1 Aiden Markram, 2 Mitchell Marsh, 3 Nicholas Pooran, 4 Rishabh Pant (wk, capt), 5 David Miller, 6 Abdul Samad, 7 Ravi Bishnoi, 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Prince Yadav, 10 Digvesh Rathi, 11 Avesh Khan

Impact players: Mayank Yadav, Ayush Badoni, Himmat Singh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Matthew Breetzke