IPL 2025 | It’s fine to have home-ground advantage, says Hopes

Punjab Kings' James Hopes and Lucknow Super Giants' Shahbaz Ahmed discuss home advantage and pitch conditions for IPL match.

Punjab Kings fast bowling coach James Hopes vouched for home advantage in cricket ahead of his side’s IPL match against Lucknow Super Giants here at the Ekana Stadium on Tuesday.

“I think it’s fine to have a home-ground advantage. If you have a spin-heavy attack, you can play on a spinning wicket, that’s fine.

“Ultimately, you only play one game there [at an away ground]. You’ve just got to prepare accordingly and try to combat that,” said Hopes at the pre-match press conference.

Hopes also reckoned the Lucknow pitch will be a good one while admitting that it might play out in line with the home team’s bowling combination.

“At the moment, it looks pretty good. It’s changed a lot over the last few days. We know that they [LSG] have had their injuries on the pace front. We know they were spin-heavy in the first game. We’ll just have to wait and see whether they go spin heavy again,” added Hopes.

LSG all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed opined that the Ekana surface will provide for an even battle between bat and ball.

“I feel this pitch will help both batters and bowlers. Also, this is a big ground, which will help the bowlers. It might aid pacers in the beginning, but batters will have their chances later on.