A contest of contrasts beckons as Royals return to Jaipur stronghold
Big picture - The contrast, and the similarity
Rajasthan Royals and Lucknow Super Giants are different yet same. They head into this top-of-the-table clash with contrasting recent results. Royals' last outing was a come-from-behind win against Gujarat Titans while Super Giants' loss against Punjab Kings was only their second since the start of IPL 2022 batting first.
And that's just the start of the contrasts. Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal score runs at 11.20 per over as a pair for Royals - the fastest among openers at IPL 2023. Kyle Mayers and KL Rahul go at 8.43 for Super Giants and are only faster than Kolkata Knight Riders' Rahmanullah Gurbaz and N Jagadeesan among those who have opened together multiple times this year. Subsequently Royals score 9.76 on average per over in the powerplay - the second quickest - as opposed to Super Giants' 8.03 - third slowest.
In fact, the combined strike rate of the top four Super Giants - Mayers, Rahul, Deepak Hooda and Krunal Pandya - is 126.01, significantly lower than Royals' 149.21. They are largely driven by Mayers, who tees off against the new ball and strikes at 168. Rahul's restrained approach and Hooda's struggles have not helped.
On the other hand, each of Royals' top-order batters has looked to consciously take the aggressive route. Apart from Buttler and Jaiswal, Sanju Samson, Devdutt Padikkal, Riyan Parag and R Ashwin have batted in the top four for them.
Where the two teams are quite similar is in their finishing prowess - thanks largely to Nicholas Pooran and Shimron Hetmyer. Nos. 5 to 8 for Super Giants score a cumulative 167 per 100 balls while those batters for Royals strike at close to 160.
Pooran's 141 runs this season have come at a strike rate of 216.92 and Super Giants' heist against Royal Challengers Bangalore was largely thanks to his 62. Hetmyer has been doing something similar for Royals, scoring at a strike rate of 184.84. He trains with the mindset of finishing games from improbable situations and helped them defeat Gujarat Titans in such a scenario to move to the top of the points table.
Despite having a different starting method, Super Giants are second on the table behind Royals. Royals' homecoming at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur - they played their first two home games in Guwahati - could be an exciting clash of contrasts.
IPL 2023 form guide
Rajasthan Royals WWWLW (last five matches, most recent first)
Lucknow Super Giants LWWLW
Team news - More bench time for Quinton de Kock?
Mayers has been a major reason behind Super Giants' quick starts and it could mean Quinton de Kock spends more time on the bench.
Buttler's finger injury saw him being subbed out via the Impact Player rule against Chennai Super Kings but he fielded in Royals' last outing.
Toss and Impact Player strategy
Rajasthan Royals
Riyan Parag was left out against Super Kings, when Royals opted to go in with an extra bowling option even in their bat-first XI. That aside, they've generally subbed out a batter for a bowler (Sandeep Sharma or Kuldeep Sen) in each of the matches and that trend could perhaps continue. But both Padikkal and Parag have had a largely tough time in this competition. Will that force Royals to look at Joe Root, who can chip in with some offspin against a line-up that has enough left-handers?
Possible bat-first XI: 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 Jos Butter, 3 Sanju Samson (capt & wk), 4 Devdutt Padikkal, 5 Riyan Parag, 6 Shimron Hetmyer, 7 Dhruv Jurel 8 R Ashwin, 9 Adam Zampa 10 Trent Boult, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal
Possible field-first XI: 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 Jos Butter, 3 Sanju Samson (capt & wk), 4 Riyan Parag, 5 Shimron Hetmyer, 6 Dhruv Jurel 7 R Ashwin, 8 Adam Zampa 9 Trent Boult, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Sandeep Sharma
Lucknow Super Giants
Ayush Badoni has been Super Giants' Impact Player, except in the last game, when they opted to bring K Gowtham in for Mayers, who was already dismissed. If they are chasing, they would perhaps sub a bowler out.
Possible bat-first XI: 1 KL Rahul (capt), 2 Kyle Mayers, 3 Deepak Hooda, 4 Krunal Pandya, 5 Nicholas Pooran (wk), 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Ayush Badoni, 8 K Gowtham, 9 Ravi Bishnoi, 10 Avesh Khan, 11 Mark Wood
Possible bowl-first XI: 1 KL Rahul (capt), 2 Kyle Mayers, 3 Deepak Hooda, 4 Krunal Pandya, 5 Nicholas Pooran (wk), 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 K Gowtham, 8 Ravi Bishnoi, 9 Avesh Khan, 10 Mark Wood, 11 Yudhvir Singh/Amit Mishra
Stats that matter
- Super Giants are yet to beat Royals in the IPL. Royals won both of their clashes last season.
- Among batters with at least 50 runs against Boult in the IPL, Rahul has the fourth-best strike rate. The left-arm quick has dismissed Rahul twice though.
- Royals have won 32 of the 47 IPL matches played at Sawai Mansingh Stadium - a win percentage of 68, only bettered by Super Kings at Chepauk.
- Since IPL 2022, Buttler has been dismissed against spin only twice in 17 innings and has the best average among those who have aggregated at least 100 runs against spin.
- Pooran's average of 16 against Royals is the lowest for him against any opponent in the IPL.