After being sidelined for nearly a year, Mayank Yadav returns to professional cricket. The ace pacer suffered a lower back stress fracture last May and has been out of action since. He recently featured for India A before the T20 World Cup, but those were a couple of friendly games against USA and Namibia. Meanwhile, the BCCI had cleared him to feature in the IPL much before, but the LSG team management didnโt want to risk him and brought him to action for the first time this season against Rajasthan Royals.
Notably, Mayank showed glimpses of his class in the 2024 edition of the IPL, when the youngster claimed seven wickets in four matches. He was regularly clicking over 150 kmph, which impressed the Indian team management as well, resulting in his T20I debut. However, injuries have bothered the cricketer throughout his short career so far. In the 2025 season, he could feature in only two games before being ruled out.
Despite so, Lucknow showed tremendous support and retained him for INR 11 crore. Their confidence in the Delhi-born pacer is remarkable, especially given that he has been out of action for a longer time than he has featured. They would now hope for Mayank to stay injury-free, as he can prove to be the X-factor in LSGโs bowling department. In the game against RR, he replaced Avesh Khan in the squad, while the Rishabh Pant-led side also made another change, bringing back Digvesh Rathi for Manimaran Siddharth.
LSG win toss, elect to bowl
Lucknow won the toss and elected to bowl first at the Ekana Stadium. After the toss, captain Rishabh Pant noted the difficulty Lucknow have had in winning games at home and addressed that, stating the goal is to take it as a challenge and figure out a way to return to winning ways as LSG havenโt won a home game this season.ย
โWe’re looking to bowl first, you know. We have been playing in this condition. Still figuring what’s best but, the way our team is, we want to put our opposition under pressure when they bat first. When you look at last few matches, it’s been challenging, but at the same time, as a team, we love that challenge. We’re going to figure out a way, how we play on our home soil and not looking as a disadvantage. As a player, you’re going to find the way,โ Pant said.ย
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