Rajat Patidar is back for Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Photo: BCCI
Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) are locking horns in the first qualifier of IPL 2025 in Mullanpur in Chandigarh on Thursday (May 29). Rajat Patidar made his return to lead RCB in the all-important game. RCB won the toss and opted to bowl first in the away game.
Apart from Rajat, Josh Hazlewood also made his return to RCB's playing XI to boost the visiting team. "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," Rajat said at the toss.
PBKS had one change as Marco Jansen was replaced by Azmatullah Omarzai. Jansen has returned home to prepare for the World Test Championship final against Australia. The fixture is scheduled to be played from June 11 to 15.
"Would have bowled first as well. If you look at the record here, teams batting first have done well, so I am optimistic. They (the crowd) have been tremendous and you need such kind of vibration when you enter the ground and it gives us a lot of energy as well. The way they (openers) have been showing the fearless approach and the attitude has been brilliant. Marco goes out and Azmatullah comes in for him," Shreyas said.
Yuzvendra Chahal is not part of PBKS' playing XI. The winner of the first qualifier will make it to the IPL 2025 final while the losing team will get one more chance to make it to the summit clash.
Here are playing XIs of both teams
Punjab Kings: Shreyas Iyer (Captain), Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Josh Inglis, Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Azmatullah Omarzai, Harpreet Brar, Arshdeep Singh, Kyle Jamieson
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Rajat Patidar (Captain), Virat Kohli, Philip Salt, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yash Dayal, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma
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