Why is Shikhar Dhawan Not Playing Today’s IPL 2023 Match Between LSG and PBKS in Lucknow?

Punjab Kings captain Shikhar Dhawan will not be playing Indian Premier League 2023 Match 21 against Lucknow Super Giants at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium tonight.

The development was confirmed right after stand-in captain Sam Curran was present alongside LSG captain KL Rahul at the toss. While the outcome of the match will be known in some hours from now, the outcome of the toss went in PBKS’ favour as they won the toss for the first time this season.

“We’ll bowl first. Something we haven’t done all season so just needed a change up. The conditions looks good,” Curran told host broadcaster Star Sports Network at the toss.

Rahul, meanwhile, remained unfazed at being asked to bat first at their home ground on Saturday. “First game on this strip. Anything would have worked. It is exciting to challenge ourselves on different conditions. It is our first season here, so each game we’ll assess and modify,” Rahul told Star Sports.

Why is Shikhar Dhawan Not Playing Today vs Lucknow Super Giants?

15th cricketer (eighth overseas) to lead Punjab, Curran confirmed that Dhawan had suffered an injury during their last match against Gujarat Titans at the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium on the day before yesterday. The nature and extent of the injury, however, remain unknown for now.

“Shikhar [Dhawan] picked up an injury last game. Don’t know how bad it is but, hopefully, he won’t be out [for] long. His absence is huge,” Curran added before his first representative match as captain.

Apart from Dhawan’s captaincy, the visitors will also miss a senior opener in him. For the unversed, the 37-year old player has scored 233 runs at an average and strike rate of 116.50 and 146.54 respectively to be the highest run-scorer this season thus far.

Other than Dhawan, opener Prabhsimran Singh, batter Bhanuka Rajapaksa and all-rounder Rishi Dhawan are also missing this match. While Kings have handed debuts to uncapped Indian batters namely Atharva Taide and Harpreet Singh Bhatia, all-rounder Sikandar Raza and spinner Rahul Chahar have also made it to the starting XI.

Lucknow, on the other hand, have made a couple of changes to their Playing XI. While batter Ayush Badoni has replaced spinner Amit Mishra (likely swap in the second innings under the Impact Player Rule), debutant Yudhvir Singh Charak is playing ahead of pacer Jaydev Unadkat. Playing his first-ever IPL match, Charak has played 14 T20s for Hyderabad and Jammu & Kashmir.