Punjab Kings suffered a huge injury blow as captain Shikhar Dhawan missed out on the crucial IPL 2024 game against Rajasthan Royals on Saturday. Sam Curran walked out for the toss at Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur.
Rajasthan skipper Sanju Samson won the toss and elected to bowl first with some big changes to their playing eleven. Star batter Jos Buttler and experienced bowling all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin missed out due to different injuries for Rajasthan with Rovman Powell and Tanush Kotian coming in.
Rajasthan skipper Samson confirmed that Buttler is not fully fit and Ashwin has a niggle.
"We'll bowl first, it looks like a decent wicket to bowl first," Samson said after winning the toss. "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 Kotian come into the XI."
Meanwhile, Liam Livingstone returned to playing eleven for Punjab Kings after missing the last two games due to injury and replaced Sikandar Raza. Vidarbha top-order batter Atharva Taide, who played seven games in the IPL 2023, replaced Shikhar Dhawan. Sam Curran revealed that Dhawan is missing due to a niggle.
"Shikhar picked up a niggle, that's why I'm here," Sam Curran said. "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."
Punjab Kings playing XI: Atharva Taide, Jonny Bairstow, Prabhsimran Singh, Sam Curran (c), Liam Livingstone, Shashank Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Harpreet Brar, Harshal Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Arshdeep Singh.
Punjab Kings Impact Subs: Rahul Chahar, Ashutosh Sharma, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Nathan Ellis.
Rajasthan Royals playing XI: Sanju Samson (c & wk), Riyan Parag, Rovman Powell, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, Tanush Kotian, Trent Boult, Keshav Maharaj, Avesh Khan, Kuldeep Sen, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Rajasthan Impact Subs: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Shubham Dubey, Navdeep Saini, Abid Mushtaq.
