The umps walk out. It is 40 degree centigrade celsius in Ahmedabad. Will be a challenge for everyone. Lots of sunscreen being slapped on the bodies. Out walk the players. Mohsin Khan will start off proceedings. A slip in. Let's play...

GT Impact subs: Alzarri Joseph, Dasun Shanaka, KS Bharat, Shivam Mavi, Jayant Yadav.

LSG Impact subs: Ayush Badoni, Amit Mishra, Daniel Sams, Yudhvir Singh, Prerak Mankad.

Teams:

Lucknow Super Giants (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), Kyle Mayers, Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya(c), Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, Swapnil Singh, Yash Thakur, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan, Avesh Khan

Gujarat Titans (Playing XI): Wriddhiman Saha(w), Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya(c), Vijay Shankar, David Miller, Abhinav Manohar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Mohit Sharma, Noor Ahmad, Mohammed Shami

Hardik Pandya: We would have batted. I got what I wanted. It's an emotional day, our father would have been proud. This is something happening for the first time, so our family is proud. One Pandya will definitely win today. It's about expressing ourselves and not worry about the result. The fear of failure might creep in, but we need to play good cricket. One forced change, Little is out as he has to play for Ireland, Alzarri comes in for him.

Krunal Pandya: We will bowl first. It's a dream come true for us, leading our respective sides. Overall the wicket will play the same. We have a good batting side, and we fancy our chance to chase down the total. We have played good cricket, and we stand at a good stage in the points table. de Kock is in, Naveen misses out.

Lucknow Super Giants have won the toss and have opted to field

Toss time..

David Miller: It has been good campaign for the boys, you are always going to have one or two mishaps in a competition like this. The way the batters have complemented each other throughout the competition, makes it pretty easy for ourselves. We have had a few unlucky results, probably we should have never lost those games. Looking back I think we could have won those games. It's a long competition, so you need to learn from those losses. Just need to drink a lot of water (in these conditions), it's pretty hot today. I think this is our last day game, quick turnaround from Jaipur. There was not much time to get out into the nets and do some prep, it's more about hydrating. It's a massive day, credit to them (Hardik and Krunal), they have done a lot of hard work, it's an honour to play against each other as captains.

Pitch and Conditions ft. Daren Ganga: "This pitch has a name embellished on it, quite synonymous with India and there's a lot of grandeur inspiration out here in the middle. Down the ground it is 74 meters, 63 and 68 on the square. It is pitch number 7 and no extremities here, just the heat. Very little grass and it looks a little dark brown but because of the heat this will dry out and it will be good for batting. We have seen both spinners and pacers take wickets in this venue. The average first innings score is 179 but during the day game it might be a bit lower. It might dry out and get a little bit slower as we go on."

Gujarat Titans are on a roll. Sitting at the top of the points table and having lost just 3 games. They have carried on from last season and just like last year there have been different players putting their hand up in different games. The likes of Noor Ahmad, Joshua Little, Abhinav Manohar, Mohit Sharma, Sai Sudharsan have all won them games and the seniors have also contributed. Hardik has once again been impressive with his captaincy and the ever reliable Rashid Khan is ruling the bowling charts with Mohammad Shami. They look like a well-oiled unit even though it is only two years since this bunch are playing together. It would take a perfect game from the Super Giants to beat this in-form Titans team. Toss and teams coming up..

KL Rahul has been ruled out for the season and Krunal has taken over the captaincy reins. Their last game against CSK was a washout and they replaced Rahul with Manan Vohra, keeping the setup of the team almost similar. They have Quinton de Kock on the bench and can bring him in to partner Kyle Mayers at the top but that will leave them with an all Indian bowling attack as the other two overseas spots - Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran - are almost undroppable. There's also Mark Wood, who started the season with a bang, but has been overlooked because of the impressive Naveen-ul-Haq. They have some decisions to make and it will be interesting to see what combination they put out.

14:30 Local Time, 09:30 GMT: The last time these two teams met, Gujarat Titans pulled off a heist or you can also put it as Lucknow Super Giants gifting two points to the defending champions. The equation was 30 off the last 5 overs and the Titans won by 7 runs with Mohit Sharma defending 12 in the last over. Anyway, this is a new day, different venue and a little change in Super Giants' captaincy. They haven't beaten the Titans in the three previous encounters. But with the points table getting very tight, the Super Giants need a win to keep up with the leaders. Hello and welcome to the first game of Super Sunday..

Preview

Just three points separate the two teams but such has been the nature of the tightly-contested season so far, that they are two spots behind by the time the game gets underway.

At this critical juncture, the focus will be on the visitors and how they approach the rest of the season given the absence of KL Rahul, their regular skipper. It would no doubt prompt an overhaul, indications of which were seen in their rain-curtailed game against CSK.

An overhaul more than halfway into the season is bound to pose a lot of questions particularly if the moves don't click.

It is on this knife's edge that they run into the top-ranked side, that has found the going smooth despite not being at their best especially at home. Having lost three out of their five outings here, there is a certain fallibility to the line-up even after a rare hiccup while failing to chase down a total. Their last outing against Delhi saw them lose while chasing for only the second time in 14 attempts, with their skipper Hardik Pandya taking up the blame for failing to finish the chase despite getting a half-century.

However, a clinical performance in the last game against Rajasthan Royals would've again invigorated their campaign.

When: Sunday, May 07 at 15:30 IST

Where: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad

What to expect: The last time a day game was played here, Rinku Singh's heroics saw KKR overhaul a 200-plus total. But that was nearly a month ago, and the last game to be played here saw DC successfully defend 130. The wearing square could play a factor in how the teams stack up, with a possible focus on slower bowlers a distinct possibility.

Head to head: Gujarat Titans have won all three encounters between the two so far

Teams:

Gujarat Titans

Player availability: Joshua Little has gone home for international duty and Alzarri Joseph is likely to fit in as his replacement

Tactics and match-ups: Noor Ahmed, one of their breakthrough stars of the season, should be a good match-up against the left-handers in the opposition, and with them being spread out through the batting order, his over entry points could be earlier than how he normally does, after Rashid Khan. Additionally, if Quinton de Kock finds his way into the eleven, then his battle with Shami could be fiery. While he strikes at 146 against the pacer, he's also been dismissed thrice in thirty balls.

Probable XI: Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha, Hardik Pandya, Vijay Shankar, David Miller, Abhinav Manohar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmed, Mohammed Shami, Mohit Sharma

Lucknow Super Giants

B7$KL Rahul has been ruled out of the tournament and replaced by Karun Nair in the squad

Tactics and player availability: The absence of KL Rahul has thrown a spanner in the works for the make-up of the team. Rahul's presence as a reliable top-order Indian player is hard to replicate. And how they fill in this gap ties in with the overall strategy of the team. There is a readymade top order player in the wings in Quinton de Kock, but that could mean sacrificing an overseas pacer. In their last, rain-affected game, they did not go this way and instead gave the likes of Manan Vohra and Karan Sharma a go at the top order. But that quickly backfired in the small period of play possible. This could prompt a rethink once again. Deepak Hooda, who has a history with current captain Krunal Pandya, found himself dropped after a string of poor performances, but could be back in the reckoning.

B9$Quinton de Kock, Kyle Mayers, Deepak Hooda, Ayush Badoni, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, Krunal Pandya, K Gowtham, Avesh Khan, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan

Did you know

- Mohammed Shami and Rashid Khan have been the bugbears for LSG. In three games the duo have picked ten wickets at an average E/R of 5.95

- Hardik Pandya has been dismissed twice in 14 balls by Amit Mishra but never by Ravi Bishnoi (25 balls, S/R 220)

What they said

I let Rashid handle the business with Noor. Nobody better to communicate. Not much I have to do, I only suggest on when to have a slip. They are very confident about what they want to do, we only have conversations when things aren't going right - Hardik Pandya, Gujarat Titans captain

Squads:

Gujarat Titans Squad: Wriddhiman Saha(w), Hardik Pandya(c), Vijay Shankar, David Miller, Abhinav Manohar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Mohit Sharma, Noor Ahmad, Mohammed Shami, Alzarri Joseph, Shubman Gill, Pradeep Sangwan, Matthew Wade, Jayant Yadav, Dasun Shanaka, Srikar Bharat, Odean Smith, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Shivam Mavi, Darshan Nalkande, Urvil Patel, Sai Sudharsan, Yash Dayal

Lucknow Super Giants Squad: Kyle Mayers, Manan Vohra, Karan Sharma, Ayush Badoni, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran(w), Krunal Pandya(c), Krishnappa Gowtham, Naveen-ul-Haq, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan, Amit Mishra, Quinton de Kock, Yash Thakur, Daniel Sams, Prerak Mankad, Deepak Hooda, Avesh Khan, Mark Wood, Swapnil Singh, Romario Shepherd, Arpit Guleria, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Karun Nair