🏏IPL 2025 - Match 64 GT vs LSG on 22nd May 2025 at Ahmedabad 🏏

🏏IPL 2025 - Match 64 Gujarat Titans vs Lucknow Super Giants on 22nd May 2025 at Ahmedabad starting from 7:30pm 🏏

With just two league matches left, Shubman Gill-led side has already secured a spot in the playoffs and will now aim for a top-two finish for a better chance at reaching the final. The former champions are riding high on confidence after a dominating 10-wicket win over the Delhi Capitals and will look to maintain that winning momentum.

On the other hand, LSG have been knocked out of the playoff race following a recent loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad. With only five wins from 12 matches, the Rishabh Pant-led side currently sits seventh in the points table. However, they will look to end their season on a positive note. Notably, the last time these two teams met at the Ekana Stadium, LSG registered a six-wicket victory and will look to replicate a similar result.

Preview

Winners in their debut season in 2022, runners-up in 2023, group stage exit in 2024 and come 2025, the Gujarat Titans are back in the playoffs with an eye on their second title. On paper, their batting looks top-heavy but such has been the dominance of their top order that the middle order hasn't been called into action too much.

Prasidh Krishna's breakthrough season has been the backbone of GT's bowling efforts with the lanky pacer being the all-phase wicket-taking option for skipper Shubman Gill. Sai Kishore, despite being underused in a few games, has shouldered the spin attack to compensate for Rashid's lean patch. All this shows how GT have moulded themselves into a well-knit unit that doesn't depend on a single individual to get the job done. Losing Jos Buttler for the playoffs is a massive blow but for these league games, he along with Gill and Orange Cap holder Sai Sudharsan continue to be a nightmare for bowling attacks.

Having qualified for the playoffs, GT have their sights set firmly on a top-two finish with two home games to go. Winning both games will lock a top-two berth, while one win may also be enough as long as one among RCB and PBKS drop a game. The first of those will be against a struggling LSG outfit that never really got going this season.

Rishabh Pant's struggles have been so extreme that the wicket-keeper batter has often appeared to be feeling the pressure of the price tag and captaincy. It hasn't helped his cause that the bowling unit was hurt by injuries right from the start of the season and it is the emergence of Digvesh Rathi that has covered some of the cracks in LSG's bowling. Ravi Bishnoi has struggled while Nicholas Pooran's early season form has vanished, leaving LSG outside of the top-four.

With a couple of games to go, LSG will hope to bow out on a positive note while also testing their bench strength. The one-match suspension for Rathi means that the bowling is even more crippled now. Against a marauding GT top-order, the task seems cut out for Pant and co.

When: Gujarat Titans vs Lucknow Super Giants, on May 22, at 7.30 PM LOCAL

Where: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad

What to expect: Pitches in Ahmedabad have been a batter's paradise but the pace and bounce on offer has also meant that the pacers have had their moments. The hit-the-deck kind of bowlers have found success, like Krishna, but it has overall been a happy hunting ground for batters. Expect more of the same.

Head to head: GT 4-2 LSG. The last two encounters, in 2023 and 2024, were won by LSG.

Thanks Soni for the tag and the thread.. Looking forward to the match..

Team Watch

Gujarat Titans

Injuries/Unavailability: There are no injuries or availability issues reported from the GT camp for this game.

Tactics and matchups: LSG's downfall this season has coincided with the dip in form for Pooran. The moment he arrives at the crease on Thursday, Gill might want to unleash Rashid Khan or Kagiso Rabada at him. Against the Afghanistan leg spinner, he has scored 87 off 72, getting out thrice. Rabada has dismissed the left-hander four times in 42 deliveries, conceding 55 runs.

Probable XII: Shubman Gill(c), Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler(wk), Sherfane Rutherford, Rahul Tewatia, Shahrukh Khan, Arshad Khan, Rashid Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Kagiso Rabada, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj.

Lucknow Super Giants

Injuries/Unavailability: Digvesh Rathi is unavailable for this fixture after copping a one-match ban following yet another Code of Conduct breach in the previous fixture.

Tactics and Matchups: Aiden Markram has been a reveation for LSG this season. He might be the team's trump card against majority of GT's bowling attack. He has scored runs briskly against Mohammed Siraj (34 off 23), Kagiso Rabada (35 off 24, 1 dismissal) and Prasidh Krishna (24 off 12, 1 dismissal).

Probable XII: Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant(c&wk), Ayush Badoni, Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, Akash Deep, Avesh Khan, Ravi Bishnoi, William ORourke

In the spotlight - Sherfane Rutherford and Ravi Bishnoi

This has been Sherfane Rutherford's best IPL season yet. He has featured more consistently in his previous two stints, and has done well with an average of 38.16 and a strike rate of 159.02. With GT's top order set to get lighter with Buttler's departure, there will be more responsibility on him in the knockouts and he would want to gather momentum over the last two league games.

Ravi Bishnoi enjoyed a meteoric rise after impressing in the 2020 Under-19 World Cup, and became a regular in India's T20I side after making his debut in 2022. He has suffered a difficult season this time around in the IPL, however, with just nine wickets from 11 games. His average and economy rate of 44.55 and 10.83 respectively in IPL 2025 have comfortably been his worst in any year and he was even dropped in the defeat to Punjab Kings. With fellow legspinner Digvesh Rathi suspended for this game, it is a chance for Bishnoi to put out a reminder of his quality.

Big picture: Untested middle order a concern for GT

Gujarat Titans have completed their first major objective of IPL 2025 - to qualify for the playoffs. But it's still not yet job done in the league stage, as they are still not assured of finishing in the top two. When they reached the finals in the 2022 and 2023 seasons, they did so by topping the league. If they win both their remaining games, they are guaranteed to repeat that feat, and they would want to take the first step towards that goal in a home game against the beleaguered Lucknow Super Giants.

GT will be wary of the challenge their opponents can pose, however, with one of their only three defeats this season coming against LSG.

That game had exposed one possible weakness in GT - what happens when Shubman Gill, B Sai Sudharsan and Jos Buttler don't go really big? Gill and Sudharsan hit fifties in that game, but departed within the space of seven balls after taking GT to 120 for no loss in 12 overs, and Buttler couldn't take off. The middle order was called into action for heavier lifting than usual, and they couldn't build on the platform, and GT finished on just 180 for 6.

GT might want to see their middle order tested more before the knockouts, when they will also be without the services of Buttler.

Originally posted by: SoniRita

When: Gujarat Titans vs Lucknow Super Giants, on May 22, at 7.30 PM LOCAL

Where: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad

What to expect: Pitches in Ahmedabad have been a batter's paradise but the pace and bounce on offer has also meant that the pacers have had their moments. The hit-the-deck kind of bowlers have found success, like Krishna, but it has overall been a happy hunting ground for batters. Expect more of the same.

Head to head: GT 4-2 LSG. The last two encounters, in 2023 and 2024, were won by LSG.

Thanks soni Soni 🐨

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Pitch and conditions

This year, teams batting first have won four of the five matches at the Narendra Modi Stadium, with GT chasing 204 in the other game, against Delhi Capitals. Setting a total may be the way to go for whoever wins the toss. The pitch is also set to favour fast bowlers more, with the quicks taking a wicket every 20 balls at the venue this season as compared to spinners striking once every 23 deliveries.

Stats and trivia

GT comfortably have the best top-order (Nos. 1-3) average in IPL 2025 (61.35), but their middle order (Nos. 4-7) averages the lowest in the league (21.39). But their strike rate (165.65) is better than that of any other middle order.

Gill and Sai Sudharsan are only the fifth pair to cross 600 runs for the same team in an IPL season. Overall, GT are the third team to have two players score 600 or more runs in a season, after Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Chennai Super Kings

Rishabh Pant's struggles could continue as he comes up against Mohammed Siraj. Even though Pant strikes at 185.10 against Siraj in T20s, he has been out to him four times in nine innings.