Punjab Kings will host Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Qualifier 1 of the ongoing IPL 2025. RCB captain Rajat Patidar won the toss and elected to bowl first in the high-voltage clash. After the toss, Patidar noted that Australia quick Josh Hazlewood made his return to the playing XI but didn’t mention anything about Tim David. The flamboyant Australia batter suffered a hamstring injury during the ongoing season and it arguably ruled him out of Qualifier 1.
He suffered a hamstring injury during the game against Sunrisers Hyderabad and has been out since. In his absence, Romario Shepherd has done a decent job and the team management has backed him for the game against Punjab in Mullanpur. Meanwhile, Mayank Agarwal, who played a vital knock in the previous game against Lucknow Super Giants, has moved to the Impact Player list, with Patidar replacing him in the playing XI.
After winning the toss, Patidar noted that the wicket looked hard and there was a decent covering of the grass and that the team wants to use the first few overs wisely.
“We will bowl first. Wicket looks very hard, decent covering of grass and will try to maximise the first few overs. Everyone gave more than 100 percent in the last game, Jitesh Salt and Kohli they were tremendous. One change for us. Hazlewood comes in place of Thushara.” Patidar said after the toss.
Interestingly, RCB managed to deliver in the first few overs as Punjab lost four wickets in the powerplay. It only happened for the second time this season for the Shreyas Iyer-led side.
Teams:
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Josh Inglis (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Azmatullah Omarzai, Harpreet Brar, Arshdeep Singh, Kyle Jamieson
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (Playing XI): Virat Kohli, Philip Salt, Rajat Patidar (c), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yash Dayal, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma
