MOHALI: Sam Curran-led Punjab Kings (PBKS) won the toss and decided to bowl against Hardik Pandya’s Mumbai Indians (MI) in the 33rd match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium on Thursday.
Curran will be the stand-in skipper for the Kings after regular captain Shikhar Dhawan suffered an injury during IPL 2024.
The Punjab-based franchise are coming into this match after coceding a 3-wicket loss against Rajasthan Royals (RR). Currently, PBKS are standing in the eighth place of the standings with four points at a net run rate of -0.218. They have played six matches in the tournament and won just two games.
Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians are standing in the ninth place of the table with four points at a net run rate of -0.218. They have won two games after playing six games. The Mumbai-based franchise are coming into this match after a 20-run loss against Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
While speaking at the toss, Curran said that Rilee Rossouw will be replacing Jonny Bairstow in the first eleven. “We will have a bowl. Keeping up with the trend of the tournament. Shikhar is not well, so that’s the only injury and Rilee comes in for Jonny today. It is not nice to lose the close games but we are doing a lot of things right. Taide drops out of the side, just a couple of tactical changes”, Curran said.
While Pandya said that every players should commit to the team’s goal. He added that once the players start doing that the results will be seen.
“We were wanting to bat first as well, so good toss to lose. We don’t judge (our performances), couple of times we had the game in our grasp and didn’t finish the game, IPL tests you, when the game is not over it is not over. We just take it game by game, go out there and give our 100 percent. Every indivdual should commit to the team’s goal and once we do that, the results will be seen. Same team”, Pandya said.
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Rilee Rossouw, Prabhsimran Singh, Sam Curran (C), Jitesh Sharma (Wk), Liam Livingstone, Shashank Singh, Ashutosh Sharma, Harpreet Brar, Harshal Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Arshdeep Singh.
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan (Wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (C), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Mohammad Nabi, Gerald Coetzee, Shreyas Gopal, Jasprit Bumrah. (ANI)