Riyan Parag: We were looking to bowl, it is a little bit warm under lights, should be better than the last time. Vaibhav the youngster comes in. It's been kinda tricky, we've been doing small bits right but we haven't been able to put a collective performance together, we've been having honest chats as a team.

Lucknow Super Giants have won the toss and have opted to bat

Rishabh Pant: We're going to bat first, wicket is looking dry so we want to take advantage. No dew so why not bat first. General thought process was to take the positives.

Lucknow Super Giants have won the toss and have opted to bat

Pitch report: The dimensions first, 67m and 63m square boundaries, the straight hit is at 73m. It's pitch number 5 in use today, there's a nice strong breeze going along, so that shorter boundary will feel a bit bigger. Even covering of grass, should be good pace and bounce on offer for the pacers. A few bare pitches, it's a hot day and the pitch looks dry. The par score here is 185 and the team getting there should be able to win, reckon Shane Watson and Simon Katich, in their pitch report.

UPDATE: Sanju Samson is set to miss today's game following the injury he sustained in the previous game. Riyan Parag will lead the Royals today.

The Super Giants had a four-day lay off following their defeat to CSK at Chepauk. That game saw the Super Kings smother Nicholas Pooran’s blaze - a task that every other opponent had failed to do thus far. Even as LSG failed to defend the 167-run target, there was a silver lining in Rishabh Pant’s return to form. Following a damp start to the season, Pant struck a 49-ball 63 on a surface that saw the rest of his teammates struggle. Perhaps knowing they’ve got more substance in the middle-order will embolden the already brazen top-three even further.

18:15 Local Time, 12:45 GMT, 18:15 IST: Few things in the game of cricket are more gut wrenching than losing a game in the super over and the Rajasthan Royals head into this contest having stomached such an agony just a couple of days ago. Chasing 189 to win against the Capitals, it was theirs to win but for a superb final over from Mitch Starc. The difference, in the end, came down to an extra run that the Royals conceded off the last delivery of their bowling innings - a run that wouldn’t have been conceded had Maheesh Theekshana held on to a simple catch. Now, sitting at 8th place on the table with just two wins, the Royals have to somehow put that behind them and focus on the task up ahead because it isn’t going to be an easy one. As they gear up to host LSG, the emphasis of their planning will be on containing the visitors’ explosive and firing top order.

Preview

It has been a season of more lows than highs so far, for the Rajasthan Royals, which has seen them accumulate only four points from the seven games they have played. Coming off a defeat in a Super Over against the Delhi Capitals in their last outing, which arguably shouldn't have gone that far, hasn't helped their fortunes as an uphill task awaits them for the rest of this season's IPL.

Multiple batting order changes and poor death bowling have been the story of Royals season so far. Riyan Parag has been a shadow of himself following his 573-run season last year. But the bright spark for them has been Yashasvi Jaiswal who has slowly appeared to find his mojo following two successive fifties in the last two games.

Unfortunately, for the Royals their bowling hasn't covered themselves in glory either. Barring Jofra Archer who has picked up five wickets in the PowerPlay, the rest of their bowlers have struggled in this phase with only two wickets combined. The bowling unit have also conceded the most number of runs by through extras so far amongst all teams worth 83 runs. It remains to be said that the Royals were accurate with the ball against the Capitals until the 15th over when their death bowling let them down again. The Royals have conceded at 12.3 runs an over this year at the death and would look to address these concerns on a bigger ground in Jaipur.

Lucknow Super Giants, on the other hand, have been a surprise package this season. Mitchell Marsh and Nicholas Pooran have arguably been the standout batters in the tournament so far while Rishabh Pant's timely half-century against CSK only augurs well for the franchise. LSG have been slightly behind the eight-ball with the pacers but will be buoyed by their spinners, especially Digvesh Singh Rathi who has nine wickets so far this season.

With the tournament nearing its halfway stage both teams will be eyeing the two points as the race for the playoffs begins to slowly take shape.

When: Rajasthan Royals vs Lucknow Super Giants, Match 36, IPL 2025, April 19, 19:30 IST

Where: Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur

What to expect: It is expected to be another hot day in Jaipur with maximum temperatures of 39 degrees Celsius with no chance of any rain. The pitch played slightly slower in the first innings in the first game at this venue which was a day game and therefore, expect the side winning the toss to take the field first.

Head to Head: RR 4-1 LSG. LSG's sole victory against the Royals came at the same ground back in 2023.

Team News:

Rajasthan Royals

Tactics and match-ups: How to stop Nicholas Pooran is the question on many a team's mind in this season. And Rajasthan might have a card to play here. Jofra Archer has the wood over Pooran in T20s, dismissing him thrice in 36 balls, conceding just 39 runs. If it comes to that, this match-up could be a good contest.

Injury & Availability: Sanju Samson hurt his side while trying to play a cut shot in the Royals last outing against Delhi Capitals on Wednesday (April 16) which forced the Royals captain to walk off 'retired hurt'. He mentioned in the post-match interview that he feels alright but the exact extent of the injury remains to be unknown.

Tactics & Matchups: - to be added

Probable XII: Sanju Samson (c and wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Nitish Rana, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Shubham Dubey, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Tushar Deshpande/ Akash Madhwal, Sandeep Sharma

Lucknow Super Giants

Injury & Availability: Fast-bowling prodigy Mayank Yadav has joined the Super Giants camp but whether he obtains clearance to play against the Royals remains to be seen

Tactics & Matchups: In four out of six innings this season, Riyan Parag has been dismissed by pace. Lucknow would have an eye on this stat when Parag comes out to bat, even though his strike-rate against pace has gone up since the previous season.

Probable XII: Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Rishabh Pant (c and wk), David Miller, Abdul Samad, Shardul Thakur, Avesh Khan, Prince Yadav/ Akash Deep, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Ravi Bishnoi

Did you know?

- In twelve T20 innings in 2025, Sanju Samson averages only 25.00 with just one fifty against his name

- Nicholas Pooran's strke-rate of 272 against spin is the best by any batter in the history of the IPL (for those who have faced more than 50 balls of spin)

Squads:

Lucknow Super Giants Squad: Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Ayush Badoni, Abdul Samad, David Miller, Shardul Thakur, Avesh Khan, Akash Deep, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Ravi Bishnoi, Prince Yadav, Shahbaz Ahmed, Matthew Breetzke, Himmat Singh, Shamar Joseph, Manimaran Siddharth, Aryan Juyal, RS Hangargekar, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Akash Maharaj Singh, Mayank Yadav, Arshin Kulkarni

Rajasthan Royals Squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson(w/c), Riyan Parag, Nitish Rana, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Sandeep Sharma, Tushar Deshpande, Shubham Dubey, Kumar Kartikeya, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Kunal Singh Rathore, Akash Madhwal, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kwena Maphaka, Ashok Sharma, Vaibhav Suryavanshi