Rajasthan Royals locked horns with Punjab Kings in the 66th match of IPL 2023 on Friday. It is a must-win game for both the teams who are playing their last league-stage match and are stuck at 12 points. Ahead of the game, RR star bowler Ravichandran Ashwin was not included in the Playing XI due a back spasm.
In the ongoing season, Ashwin has played 13 matches and has scalped 14 wickets with a BBM of 2/23. He has bowled with an economy rate of 7.51. When it comes to batting, Ashwin scored 67 runs with the highest score of 67 and an average of 11.17. He has smashed 5 fours and 3 sixes so far.
"We need to win the game. Then see how the other games go. If you want to play good T20 cricket, you need to forget things. We have had four to five days off. One has to understand the conditions. We have couple of changes. Last minute changes. Ashwin misses out because of a back spasm," Sanju Samson said during the toss.
"Last match, dew wasn't much. First batting or second, it shouldn't change much. We will come and enjoy the game. Will try to give our best shot. We need to take more wickets in the first 6 overs. We can cash in more. We are playing the same team," Shikhar Dhawan said during toss.
Earlier in the match, RR won the toss and opted to bowl.
Punjab Kings Playing XI: Shikhar Dhawan(c), Prabhsimran Singh, Atharva Taide, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Jitesh Sharma(w), Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Rahul Chahar, Kagiso Rabada, Arshdeep Singh
Rajasthan Royals Playing XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w/c), Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, Adam Zampa, Trent Boult, Navdeep Saini, Sandeep Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal
Substitutes
RR: Dhruv Jurel, Donovan Ferreira, Akash Vasisht, Kuldeep Sen, Murugan Ashwin.
PBKS: Nathan Ellis, Sikandar Raza, Rishi Dhawan, Mohit Rathee, Matthew Short.
