Castrogiovanni takes the No3 shirt and is joined in the front row by Boris Stankovich in the only changes to the line-up which started last Sunday’s Aviva Premiership victory at Leeds Carnegie.
England flanker Croft is named among the replacements on his return from injury.
Director of rugby Richard Cockerill said: “We’ve got four tough games to play during this Six Nations period and, although we made a good start to that run with a win at Leeds last week, we want to keep it going.
“We’ve had some cracking games against Wasps in recent years and it should be a good contest.
“Julian White has had a bit of an injury but having Castro back softens the blow and I thought Pete Bucknall did an outstanding job for us at Leeds last weekend.”
Jordan Crane (knee), Ed Slater (foot), Matt Smith (hamstring) and Julian White (ankle) are ruled out by injury this week. Geordan Murphy, Ben Pienaar and Geoff Parling are also sidelined.
More than 20,000 tickets have been sold for Saturday’s game but tickets remain available. Phone the Tigers ticket hotline on 0844 856 1880, call in at Welford Road (open until 5pm Friday and from 9am Saturday) or book online and collect on matchday.
Leicester Tigers (v London Wasps, Welford Road, Saturday 5.30pm)
15 Scott Hamilton
14 Horacio Agulla
13 Manu Tuilagi
12 Anthony Allen
11 Alesana Tuilagi
10 Jeremy Staunton
9 James Grindal
1 Boris Stankovich
2 George Chuter
3 Martin Castrogiovanni
4 Steve Mafi
5 George Skivington
6 Craig Newby (c)
7 Ben Woods
8 Thomas Waldrom
Replacements
16 Rob Hawkins
17 Marcos Ayerza
18 Peter Bucknall
19 Calum Green
20 Tom Croft
21 Sam Harrison
22 Dan Hipkiss
23 Billy Twelvetrees
London Wasps head coach Shaun Edwards has made five changes from the starting line-up that lost to Gloucester last weekend. Mark Van Gisbergen and Nic Berry return in the backline and Tom Lindsay, Marty Veale and England Under-20s flanker Joe Launchbury all start in the pack.
London Wasps
15 Mark Van Gisbergen
14 Richard Haughton
13 Dominic Waldouck
12 Riki Flutey
11 Ben Jacob
10 Dave Walder
9 Nic Berry
1 Tim Payne
2 Tom Lindsay
3 Ben Broster
4 Marty Veale
5 Richard Birkett (c)
6 Joe Launchbury
7 Serge Betsen
8 Joe Worsley
Replacements: 16 Joe Ward, 17 Shaun Ruwers, 18 Bob Baker, 19 James Cannon, 20 Sam Jones, 21 Joe Simpson, 22 Steve Kefu, 23 Jack Wallace
