Win Projections to be updated soon
Royal Challengers Bangalore won the toss and elected to bowl first at the IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali. Virat Kohli is leading the side in place of the injured Faf Du Plessis. Liam Livingstone returned to the side after completely recovering from his injury. Shikhar Dhawan is still unavailable to play with Sam Curran captaining the Punjab Kings.
Why is Rabada not playing today?
Sam Curran said at the toss that Nathon Ellis has replaced Rabada in the playing 11. Ellis has performed well in the limited opportunities he got. Kagiso Rabada has leaked runs in the tournament and hence the management has preferred Ellis over him. The Mohali pitch will suit Ellis’s style of bowling.
What did the captains say at the toss?
Virat Kohli – Faf potentially can’t be fielding today, so he’ll be playing as a impact player, switching with Vyshak. We got to do what we wanted, we would have batted first, the pitch could get slow, some scruff marks will help the bowlers going deep into the game. Taking one game at a time, focussing on our own game, make the most of crunch situations, we haven’t done that so far in the tournament. No other changes for us.
Sam Curran – We will bowl first, did well in the last game and we’ll take some confidence, conditions will not change a lot. Shikhar is getting closer, but he’ll miss out today. He’s a quality player, but the younger lot will have to shape up, Livingstone is back and we have Ellis back in place of KG.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI)
Virat Kohli(c), Faf du Plessis, Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik(w), Wanindu Hasaranga, Suyash Prabhudessai, Harshal Patel, Wayne Parnell, Mohammed Siraj
Punjab Kings (Playing XI)
Atharva Taide, Matthew Short, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran(c), Jitesh Sharma(w), Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Nathan Ellis, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh
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