Lucknow, Apr 4: Rohit Sharma misses out for five-time champions Mumbai Indians as captain Hardik Pandya won the toss and elected to bowl first against Lucknow Super Giants, who have included Akash Deep, in match 16 of IPL 2025 at the BRSABV Ekana Cricket Stadium on Friday.

Both teams are in the lower half of the points table and a win for either of them would get them to join the four points bandwagon. After winning the toss, Pandya said Rohit got hit on the knee in nets and is thus unavailable for Friday’s game.

In Rohit’s absence, fast-bowling all-rounder Raj Angad Bawa has been handed his MI debut. Bawa came into limelight after taking a five-wicket haul against England and leading India to winning the 2022 U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup final.

Bawa, who plays for Chandigarh in domestic cricket, is the grandson of Trilochan Singh, who won the gold medal for the Indian hockey team in the 1948 London Olympics. His father Sukhwinder Bawa is a leading cricket coach in Chandigarh and gave Raj his first cricketing lessons.

“Looks like a fresh wicket. Not sure how it is going to play. Looks a decent track. Dew might come in later. Thought better to chase. I think we in a group have spoken that we don't want to talk about the wickets.”

“We are here to play good cricket. That's the talk we have. Let's not talk about the surfaces. I think adaptation. Sticking to right plans and being smart. Lot of runs are being scored. He (Jasprit Bumrah) should be back soon,” said Pandya.

LSG skipper Rishabh Pant said Akash has recovered from the back injury he sustained in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series and comes in for left-arm spinner M Siddharth. “I think we are pretty confident as a batting unit. We are a very strong unit, but few of our players haven't come off including me.”

“We had talked to play in a certain fashion throughout the tournament. The general discussion is to go out there and express yourselves. We haven't talked about target we want to achieve. Just play the ball and watch the ball and react. I think we are pretty confident. The way I have set up myself - once we get a start, we will capitalize,” he said.

Friday’s match will be played on pitch number six, made of black soil. The square boundaries are at 66m and 73m respectively, with a relatively long straight boundary at 78m.

Playing XIs:

Lucknow Super Giants: Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant (captain & wk), Ayush Badoni, David Miller, Abdul Samad, Shardul Thakur, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Akash Deep, and Avesh Khan

Impact Substitutes: Ravi Bishnoi, Prince Yadav, Shahbaz Ahmed, M Siddharth, Akash Singh.

Mumbai Indians: Will Jacks, Ryan Rickelton (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya (captain), Naman Dhir, Raj Bawa, Mitchell Santner, Trent Boult, Ashwani Kumar, Deepak Chahar, and Vignesh Puthur

Impact Substitutes: Tilak Varma, Corbin Bosch, Robin Minz, Satyanarayana Raju, Karn Sharma

(IANS)

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