LSG bowl; CSK hand franchise debut to Spencer Johnson

With LSG out of playoffs contention, they brought in Akash Singh, Abdul Samad and Mukul Choudhary into the side

ESPNcricinfo staff

Published: May 15, 2026, 1:58 PM (1 hr ago)

Toss Lucknow Super Giants chose to bowl vs Chennai Super Kings

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain Rishabh Pant won the toss and asked Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to bat on what he called a "tacky" pitch. His counterpart Ruturaj Gaikwad was also wary of the red-soil surface in Lucknow, suggesting there was some moisture in it.

The injury to allrounder Jamie Overton, who has been sidelined from the rest of this season, forced CSK to make two changes. They handed a franchise debut to Australia left-arm quick Spencer Johnson, who has not played any competitive cricket since IPL 2025. He is working his way back from a back injury. Left-arm quick Gurjapneet Singh is the likeliest to come in from the Impact Sub bench when CSK bowl later in the evening. At the toss, Gaikwad ruled out the potential inclusion of Akeal Hosein, saying Gurjapneet will be their Impact Sub.

Prashant Veer, who was CSK's Impact Player in their previous fixture against LSG in Chennai, broke into their XI on Friday and will play at his domestic home ground. If CSK win today, they will enter the top four.

LSG, on the other hand, are already out of contention for the playoffs and Pant said that they are looking ahead to the next season. As part of those long-term plans, they handed left-arm seamer Akash Singh his first match of the season, against his former franchise. Middle-order batters Abdul Samad and Mukul Choudhary also returned to the LSG XI. Himmat Singh and Akshat Raghuwanshi dropped out of the team. Avesh Khan also missed out, with tearaway Mayank Yadav getting his third match of the season.

Josh Inglis was not part of LSG's bowl-first XI, but is set to slot in as their Impact Player when the chase.

CSK bat-first XI: 1 Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), 2 Sanju Samson (wk), 3 Urvil Patel, 4 Kartik Sharma,5 Dewald Brevis, 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Prashant Veer, 8 Anshul Kamboj, 9 Spencer Johnson, 10 Noor Ahmad,11 Mukesh Choudhary

CSK Impact Subs bench: Gurjapneet Singh, Akeal Hosein, Sarfaraz Khan, Matthew Short, Matt Henry

LSG bowl-first XI: 1 Mitchell Marsh, 2 Nicholas Pooran, 3 Rishabh Pant (capt & wk), 4 Aiden Markram, 5 Mukul Choudhary, 6 Abdul Samad, 7 Shahbaz Ahmed, 8 Mohammed Shami, 9 Mayank Yadav, 10 Akash Singh, 11 Prince Yadav

LSG Impact Subs bench: Josh Inglis, M Siddharth, Digvesh Rathi, Himmat Singh, Ayush Badoni

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