Sanju Samson won the toss as Rajasthan Royals elected to bat first against Punjab Kings in the 65th match of the IPL 2024 in Guwahati on Wednesday. The star English batter Jos Buttler missed out on Rajasthan Royals' playing eleven while Punjab Kings made a couple of major changes to their team.
Buttler has already left the Rajasthan camp to join England's national side ahead of the upcoming T20I series against Pakistan. England's uncapped wicketkeeper batter Tom Kohler-Cadmore comes in for Buttler to win his maiden IPL cap.
"We'll bat first in these conditions," Sanju Samson said after winning the toss. "This is a second home for us, we have spend quite a bit of time here. We spent two days to assess on whether there is dew, and there isn't any. The team, the batting and bowling unit are doing great. Everyone is chill and we are excited to come out and play a great game of cricket. (On securing qualification) I'd be lying if I say no, the camp looks a lot more relaxed. We'll miss Jos and Kohler-Cadmore comes in, and we might have Ferreira as an impact sub later."
England's players in IPL have already started leaving the tournament to join the national side for early preparations for the T20 World Cup 2024. Punjab also missed Liam Livingstone from their playing eleven due to a similar reason. The Australian pacer Nathan Ellis comes into Punjab's starting eleven to make his first appearance of the 2024 season.
"Tonight we play a really good team, and we can spoil a few campaigns now and finish with some pride," Sam Curran said. "We've had a really good squad but some of those games we didn't win the big moments. We are about 2-3 wins away from qualifying and we aren't there becasue we didn't capitalise on the big moments. Tonight, we play a good side and I believe in character, I certainly don't want to lose tonight and hopefully I can rub that off on the players. We've lost a few players, KG is out and Nathan Ellis gets a game. Brar also comes back into the line-up."
Rajasthan Royals Playing XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Rovman Powell, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Sandeep Sharma, Avesh Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal.
RR Impact Subs: Tanush Kotian, Keshav Maharaj, Nandre Burger, Kuldeep Sen, Donovan Ferreira.
Punjab Kings Playing XI: Prabhsimran Singh, Jonny Bairstow, Rilee Rossouw, Shashank Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sam Curran (c), Harpreet Brar, Harshal Patel, Nathan Ellis, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh.
PBKS Impact Subs: Ashutosh Sharma, Vidwath Kaverappa, Tanay Thyagarajan, Rishi Dhawan, Harpreet Bhatia.
