Playing at their home ground for the first time in IPL 2025, Punjab Kings (PBKS) have chosen to bowl against Rajasthan Royals (RR). While conditions are something of an unknown in Mullanpur's first game of the season, PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer expected dew to have an effect.
Bowling first for the second game in a row, PBKS made one change from their starting XI in their previous game, with Nehal Wadhera coming in for Priyansh Arya. Wadhera had come in as anImpact Sub in that game and scored an unbeaten 25-ball 43, but he nonetheless received a new cap before this game. Arya is on their subs bench, and could come in for the second innings.
Sanju Samson was back as RR's captain and wicketkeeper after a finger injury had restricted him to an Impact Sub's role in their first three games. He was happy to be back after feeling "restless and helpless" watching his team from the dugout until now.
Other than the captaincy going back to Samson from Riyan Parag, RR made one change from their previous game, with Yudhvir Singh coming into their pace attack in place of Tushar Deshpande, who was ruled out with a niggle.
Rajasthan Royals: 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 Sanju Samson (capt & wk), 3 Nitish Rana, 4 Riyan Parag, 5 Dhruv Jurel, 6 Shimron Hetmyer, 7 Wanindu Hasaranga, 8 Jofra Archer, 9 Maheesh Theekshana, 10 Yudhvir Singh, 11 Sandeep Sharma.
RR bench: Kunal Singh Rathore, Shubham Dubey, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal
Punjab Kings: 1 Prabhsimran Singh (wk), 2 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 3 Nehal Wadhera, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Shashank Singh, 7 Suryansh Shedge, 8 Marco Jansen, 9 Lockie Ferguson, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal.
PBKS bench: Priyansh Arya, Harpreet Brar, Pravin Dubey, Vishnu Vinod, Vijaykumar Vyshak