State of Play
Fifth-placed last time out, a transformed Rajasthan Royals squad take on Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL 2024 opener for the teams on Sunday.
The Royals, who missed out on extending their season by two points in 2023, have traded Devdutt Padikkal to their opponents for Avesh Khan and recruited Nandre Burger, Shubham Dubey, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Rovman Powell and Abid Mushtaq.
The inaugural IPL favourites in 2008 are among the favourites to triumph this time, with the likes of England’s Jos Buttler among their ranks.
Lucknow, meanwhile, have exited at the eliminator stage in both of their IPL seasons since being formed.
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Australia icon Justin Langer has replaced Andy Flower as head coach and is hoping captain KL Rahul will be ready to play after returning to training following a quad injury.
“I haven’t been coaching for two years since I left the Australian cricket team, and for two years I’ve been sleeping very well at night,” said Langer.
“Now it’s hard to sleep at night because it’s very hard to fit so much talent into 11 positions. It’s a good problem to have. It’s a sweet problem, but we’ll work it out.”
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Expected line-ups
Rajasthan Royals: Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (c), Rovman Powell, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan.
Lucknow Super Giants: KL Rahul (c), Quinton de Kock, Devdutt Padikkal, Krunal Pandya Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Marcus Stoinis, Ravi Bishnoi, Shivam Mavi, Shamar Joseph, M. Siddharth.
How to watch
Sky have the rights to show the IPL to UK viewers in 2024 and will broadcast every game live. Sunday’s game will be shown on Sky Sports Cricket from 9.50am GMT.
Prediction
The strength of the Royals – not least India’s Yashasvi Jaiswal and Buttler leading their batting – makes it hard to overlook them for the win.
The Super Giants have won all three previous encounters between these sides but expect that pattern to end in Jaipur.
