Rishabh Pant Won the toss and decided to bowl first. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in their IPL 2026 match at Lucknow on Friday.LSG benched Australian batsman Josh Ingles, but he was among the impressive players and is expected to bat in the second innings.Abdul Samad and Mukul Chaudhary came in for LSG, while Spencer Johnson made his debut in the yellow jersey for CSK.“We’re going to see.[ing] The first bowl wicket is looking a bit tough, so we didn’t need to go there and bat ourselves. As a team, we have a lot to achieve. We are a team, we run on trust, and that is what we look forward to. I think Aakash is playing a lot nowadays. I think he’s getting his first chance of the season. We’re definitely trying some things for next season. And willing to give their 200% no matter what. (Does it free you up or does it mean more pressure on you because the performances haven’t been what you wanted them to be?) Certainly, there’s no getting away from the way we’ve played this season. But at the same time, there’s a lot of positives that we can take because, we’re a little disappointed as a team because we know it’s in the team. We can make it happen and sometimes things don’t go your way, but at the same time, no complaints from that side. We still have to play good cricket and try to improve every day. (How many other changes do you have?) We have two more changes. Abdul Samad and Mukul also come in,” Pant said at the toss.While CSK captain Rutoraj Gaikwad said, “It’s an honor to get this (support), an honor to wear the yellow jersey.” It is the kind of venue where you have to bat well and bowl well. So I think batting first we still have to score well and we have seen that defended as well. So I think, yes, it might suit, it seems. [there’s] A bit damp to start with, but I think, if we bat well and score, I think around 170-180, it will be a good total for the defence. (How are you dealing with all those injuries?) Honestly, it’s hard. Obviously, you have to keep changing a lot, once you get momentum and once you get a squad, you want to keep going. But that’s something we can’t control and with that said, I think it gives opportunities to a lot of players who want to represent CSK and be a part of the IPL. So, whatever changes we have, Arul is coming and at some point Mukesh is coming. So it’s definitely helped me grow as an individual as well. And that gives us confidence going forward, we know we have good backups. So whenever we have a good squad, we are pretty confident that we will deliver. Well, it’s been a must-win for us for a while. We only want to take one game at a time. Yes, it’s hard to ignore the table, but we still want to keep our eyes down here, as the pitch is, adapt to it and make sure we’re the best team to adapt to it. Changes? Yes, we have had some changes. Spencer Johnson made his debut and Gurjapaneet also came in for Akhil.”Teams:Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Sanju Samson (W), Rituraj Gaekwad (C), Arul Patel, Karthik Sharma, Devald Brews, Shivam Dubey, Prashant Vir, Anshul Kamboj, Noor Ahmed, Spencer Johnson, Mukesh ChaudharyLucknow Supergiants (Playing XI): Mitchell Marsh, Nicholas Pooran, Aiden Markram, Rishabh Pant (W/C), Mukul Chaudhary, Abdul Samad, Shehbaz Ahmed, Mohammad Shami, Mayank Yadav, Akash Maharaj Singh, Prince Yadav Impact Substitutes for Both Teams:Chennai Super Kings Impact Subs: Gurjapaneet Singh, Akil Hussain, Sarfraz Khan, Matthew Short, Matt HenryLucknow Supergiants Impact Subs:Josh Inglis, Manimaran Siddharth, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Himmat Singh, Ayush Baduni
