Facing against the top-seeder Sanju Samson-led Rajasthan Royals in the ongoing Indian Premier League at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur on Saturday, Punjab Kings has not included skipper Shikhar Dhawan in the playing XI.
Many may feel what has gone wrong, with PBKS relying on Dhawan’s batting to climb up in the IPL points tally, standby skipper Sam Curran mentioned the reason.
Speaking after the toss, PBKS standby skipper Sam Curran revealed that Atharva Taide was playing in place of Dhawan, adding Liam Livingstone has been included in the Playing XI.
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“Shikhar picked up a niggle, that’s why I’m here. We would have bowled first as well, but we’ll now have to put the runs on the board. The balance has been good, we’d have liked to win a few more games, but the middle-order looks good, especially Shashank and Ashutosh. We’ve got exciting players and plenty of quality. We’ve Atharva Taide coming in for Shikhar tonight, Livingstone is back as well,” Curran said at toss.
Meanwhile, Rajasthan Royals’ opening batter Jos Buttler and key bowler Ravichandran will also be missed.
Citing the reason for their exclusion, Royals’ skipper Sanju Samson said at the toss, “We’ll bowl first, it looks like a decent wicket to bowl first. We’ve made a target to not think about the goal, focus on the process, work on building the team and we’re doing well. A lot of challenges outside as well, we’ve many players missing from tonight’s game. 90% of the game was good – Jos isn’t 100%, Ash bhai is having a niggle, so Rovman and Tanush Kotian come into the XI.”
RR vs PBKS:
After winning the toss, Rajasthan Royals decided to field first and dominated the match from the very beginning.
Batting first, Punjab Kings kept losing wickets and managed to score just 147/8 runs in 20 overs.
For Royals, Avesh Khan and Keshav Maharaj picked two wickets each, while Kuldeep Sen, Yuzvendra Chahal and Trent Boult took one wicket each.
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Published: 13 Apr 2024, 09:20 PM IST