IPL 2025: Punjab Kings win toss; opt to bowl first against Rajasthan Royals

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Kings (PBKS) skipper Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to bowl first against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur, Chandigarh, on Saturday.

Rajasthan, currently placed ninth on the table with just one win, will be hoping to turn their campaign around against a Punjab side that has won both their opening fixtures. On the other hand, a red-hot PBKS, after having secured two away wins against the Gujarat Titans (GT) and the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), will begin their home leg against RR, who are currently in the ninth spot with one win and two losses.

“We’ll bowl first. Looking at the last game, we were playing on a new wicket, and we wanted to see how the pitch played. Same mindset here as well. We need to stabilise the rhythm from game one, and that’s happened. Important to steady the ship from here, boys are in high spirits. Need to maintain composure and calmness throughout the season. We’ve played the practice games here, so we know how the wicket will play. We played our last two games on red soil, so hopefully, we can adapt early. We have the mindset of champions. Bowling first, no changes for us. Will change things around, maybe with the impact sub,” Shreyas Iyer said after winning the toss.

Toss @PunjabKingsIPL won the toss and elected to field against @rajasthanroyals

Updates https://t.co/kjdEJydDWe#TATAIPL | #PBKSvRR pic.twitter.com/EwMWX6zbrT

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 5, 2025

Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson said that they are happy to bat first on this pitch despite losing the toss. “Pretty happy to bat first and put on a decent total. (On playing as an impact sub earlier) I could feel what the coaches would be going through, a bit restless and helpless. But excited to be back now. It is a new team and team management; we have got to know each other now, and it takes a bit of time. We are gelling better now. In the last game, we pretty much had the perfect game. We have a small niggle for Tushar Deshpande, so he’s out for today and Yudhvir comes in for him,” Sanju Samson said.

Teams:

Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Marcus Stoinis, Nehal Wadhera, Glenn Maxwell, Shashank Singh, Suryansh Shedge, Marco Jansen, Arshdeep Singh, Lockie Ferguson, Yuzvendra Chahal.

Punjab Kings Impact Subs: Priyansh Arya, Harpreet Brar, Praveen Dubey, Vishnu Vinod, Vyshak Vijaykumar.

Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (c), Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Sandeep Sharma.

Rajasthan Royals Impact Subs: Kunal Singh Rathore, Shubham Dubey, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal. (ANI)