MOHALI: Punjab Kings stand-in skipper Sam Curran won the toss and opted to field first against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League (IPL) at Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali on Thursday.
For the RCB side, Virat Kohli to lead in the absence of Faf Du Plessis who will play as an impact player. While for Punjab, Sam Curran will captain the side as Shikhar Dhawan missed out on today’s match.
RCB in their five matches has won only two and are placed in the eighth spot in the IPL points table. While PBKS has three wins in their bag out of five matches, they are placed in fifth position.
RCB in their previous match faced Chennai Super Kings which they lost by 8 wickets whereas PBKS had won from Lucknow Super Giants by two wickets.
Punjab Kings’ stand-in skipper Sam Curran said at the toss, “We will bowl first, did well in the last game and we’ll take some confidence, conditions will not change a lot. Shikhar is getting closer, but he’ll miss out today. He’s a quality player, but the younger lot will have to shape up, Livingstone is back and we have Ellis back in place of KG”
Royal challengers Bangalore’s stand-in Virat Kohli skipper said at the toss, “Faf potentially can’t be fielding today, so he’ll be playing as an impact player, switching with Vyshak. We got to do what we wanted, we would have batted first, the pitch could get slow, some scruff marks will help the bowlers go deep into the game. Taking one game at a time, focusing on our own game, make the most of crunch situations, we haven’t done that so far in the tournament. No other changes for us.
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Atharva Taide, Matthew Short, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran(c), Jitesh Sharma(w), Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Nathan Ellis, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Virat Kohli(c), Faf du Plessis, Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik(w), Wanindu Hasaranga, Suyash Prabhudessai, Harshal Patel, Wayne Parnell, Mohammed Siraj. (ANI)