Why Lockie Ferguson Replaced Azmatullah Omarzai in LSG vs PBKS Clash

The New Zealand star has finally made his much awaited IPL debut for the IPL 2025 Season against Lucknow Super Giants. Both the teams are facing off in their IPL clash at the Ekana Stadium. Ferguson who was bought for an amount of 2 crore has been announced as part of Playing XI against LSG on 1 April, 2025.

Winning the toss, Punjab opted to bowl first at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow and asked the Lucknow Giants to come on the batting end.  LSG went with an unchanged playing XI in this match, whereas the Kings opted for a change, allowing Ferguson to play in playing XI in place of Azmatullah Omarzi.

Why No Azmatullah Omarzai In Today’s Match?

Punjab Kings made a change in their playing XI and announced Lockie Ferguson as their new addition to the playing XI, replacing Azmatullah Omarzai. Talking about the change, Shreyas Iyer said after the toss, “We are going to bowl first. It’s a new ground, new pitch, dew could be a factor as well and this being a red-soil pitch, we want to chase. The players have the freedom to express themselves. You have to play the situation, the important goal is to win. We try to keep things simple. We don’t know how the pitch is going to play but we have to adjust quickly. Lockie comes into the team,” 

Omarzai has been excluded from playing XI as the Afghanistan player hasn’t been impactful in his last fixture against the Gujarat Titans. He struggled and scored 15 runs off 16 balls and also went wicketless in his two overs, giving 29 runs with the new ball. Looking at the pitch conditions at the Ekana stadium in Lucknow, a specialist bowler would be an asset for the visiting team. Ferguson, who is good with red soil pitch, which is expected to provide bounce, will be a key strategy. The pitch is ideal for someone like Ferguson, who can generate extra pace off the surface.

PBKS vs LSG: Playing XIs

Punjab Kings Playing XI : 

Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh(w), Shreyas Iyer(c), Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Suryansh Shedge, Marco Jansen, Lockie Ferguson, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh.

Impact substitutes:

Praveen Dubey, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Nehal Wadhera, Vishnu Vinod, Harpreet Brar.

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) Playing XI:

Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant (w/c), Ayush Badoni, David Miller, Abdul Samad, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Shardul Thakur, Avesh Khan, Ravi Bishnoi

Impact substitutes:

Prince Yadav, Manimaran Siddharth, Shahbaz Ahmed, Himmat Singh, Akash Maharaj Singh.