Lucknow Super Giants captain KL Rahul got injured during their match against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Ekana Stadium, Lucknow. During the second over, Rahul slipped while chasing the ball to save it from going to the boundary. It appeared to be a hamstring injury. The physio attended to him immediately, and he was later helped off the field, limping. Krunal Pandya took over the captaincy. A video of the incident went viral on social media.
Earlier, RCB won the toss and chose to bat first in their IPL 2023 match against Lucknow Super Giants. In their previous encounter, Lucknow had successfully chased down 213 runs in a high-scoring match. Faf du Plessis, the RCB captain, said that Josh Hazlewood would replace David Willey, who was out of the competition due to injury, and Anuj Rawat would replace Shahbaz Ahmed in the playing eleven.
On the other hand, KL Rahul, the Lucknow captain, said that K. Gowtham would replace Avesh Khan in the playing eleven. The pitch was expected to be more suitable for spin than pace. Lucknow arrived at their home ground on the back of a 56-run win over Punjab Kings at Mohali, while RCB entered the match after losing to Kolkata Knight Riders at home by 21 runs.
The playing XIs were: Lucknow Super Giants: KL Rahul (c), Kyle Mayers, Deepak Hooda, Marcus Stoinis, Krunal Pandya, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Krishnappa Gowtham, Ravi Bishnoi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Amit Mishra and Yash Thakur. Substitutes: Ayush Badoni, Daniel Sams, Quinton de Kock, Prerak Mankad, Avesh Khan.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Anuj Rawat, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Suyash Prabhudessai, Wanindu Hasaranga, Karn Sharma, Josh Hazlewood and Mohammed Siraj. Substitutes: Harshal Patel, Sonu Yadav, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Michael Bracewell, Shahbaz Ahmed.
