Punjab Kings are hosting Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 27th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in Mohali. While PBKS came into this match with a win over LSG, RCB lost to CSK in their previous outing. RCB are expected to come hard at the opposition in order to gain two crucial points but ahead of the game, fans were in for a pleasant surprise as Virat Kohli walked out for the toss instead of Faf du Plessis.
Kohli, at the toss, confirmed that the regular RCB skipper is struggling with a rib injury and will not be able to field. However, Faf du Plessis will be playing as an Impact Player opening the innings swapping with the bowler Vyshak Vijaykumar. "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," Kohli said at the toss.
"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," Sam Curran who is leading PBKS in place of Shikhar Dhawan said during the toss.
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 Sing
