Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain Rajat Patidar won the toss and elected to field against Punjab Kings in Qualifier 1 of IPL 2025 at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur, Chandigarh on Thursday, May 29, 2025. Patidar feels that the wicket is hard with a decent covering of grass, and his team would like to maximise on that in the first couple of overs. The wicket might have played a role in RCB captain electing to field, but the past record in the stadium suggests that the team batting first has also done well, as pointed out by Punjab Kings' captain Shreyas Iyer.

"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 winning the toss.

"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," Punjab Kings captain Iyer said at the toss.

Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Josh Inglis(w), Shreyas Iyer(c), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Azmatullah Omarzai, Harpreet Brar, Arshdeep Singh, Kyle Jamieson

Impact Subs: Vijaykumar Vyshak, Praveen Dubey, Suryansh Shedge, Musheer Khan, Xavier Bartlet

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (Playing XI): Virat Kohli, Philip Salt, Rajat Patidar(c), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma(w), Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yash Dayal, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma

Impact Subs: Mayank Agarawal, Rasikh Salam, Manoj Bhandage, Tim Seifert, Swapnil Singh

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