Ahmedabad, May 22: Gujarat Titans (GT) captain Shubman Gill won the toss and elected to bowl first against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 clash at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Thursday.

A win for GT will help them confirm a top-two finish in the IPL 2025 points table and feature in Qualifier 1 on May 29. GT will also be sporting a lavender kit as a mark of support for their cancer awareness programme.

“We'll bowl first, looks like a good wicket. It will be good to have a target on the board. We want momentum heading into the qualifiers, these two games are going to be equally important. The way we complement each other is great, we (him and B. Sai Sudharsan) don't have conversations about who will take down the bowlers. We just play with a positive intent and stay in the moment,” said Gill.

LSG, who are already eliminated from the competition, will miss the services of mystery spinner Digvesh Rathi, who has been handed a one-match ban after accumulating five demerit points across three games for excessive wicket-taking celebrations.

As a result, LSG have brought in Shahbaz Ahmed and Himmat Singh, while pacer Akash Singh is slated to play, though he’s on the impact player list. “Would have bowled first, looks a good wicket.”

“There is a challenge when you are already eliminated, but we take pride in playing cricket. As a team, we are trying different options that give us the best chance of winning. Anything that could help us prepare for next season,” said LSG skipper Rishabh Pant.

Playing XIs:

Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill (capt), Jos Buttler (wk), Sherfane Rutherford, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Arshad Khan, R. Sai Kishore, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna

Impact substitutes: B. Sai Sudharsan, Anuj Rawat, Mahipal Lomror, Washington Sundar, and Dasun Shanaka.

Lucknow Super Giants: Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant (capt & wk), Ayush Badoni, Abdul Samad, Himmat Singh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Akash Deep, Avesh Khan, William O’Rourke

Impact substitutes: Akash Singh, M. Siddharth, Ravi Bishnoi, David Miller, and Arshin Kulkarni

--IANS

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