It came in as a surprise as Punjab Kings’ regular skipper Shikhar Dhawan didn’t come out for the toss for their match against Rajasthan Royals at Mullanpur, Chandigarh on Saturday. Star PBKS all-rounder Sam Curran was the one, who came in for the toss with RR’s Sanju Samson in the absence of Dhawan. The toss went in favour of RR with the side opting to bowl first. And after this, Curran revealed the reason behind the absence of Dhawan.
Speaking after the toss, Curran revealed that Dhawan missed out due to a minor injury.
“Shikhar (Dhawan) picked up a niggle, that’s why I’m here,” said Curran.
“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 (Singh) and Ashutosh (Sharma). We’ve got exciting players and plenty of quality. We’ve Atharva Taide coming in for Shikhar tonight, (Liam) Livingstone is back as well,” he added.
For Rajasthan Royals, Jos Buttler and Ravichandran Ashwin missed out, informed captain Sanju Samson at the toss.
After winning the toss, Samson said, “We’ll bowl first, it looks like a decent wicket to bowl first. 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 (Buttler) isn’t 100%, Ash (R Ashwin) bhai is having a niggle, so Rovman (Powell) and (Tanush) Kotian come into the XI.”
Toss Update
Rajasthan Royals win the toss and elect to bowl against Punjab Kings.
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Here are the playing XIs of both the sides –
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Sanju Samson(w/c), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, Tanush Kotian, Keshav Maharaj, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Kuldeep Sen, Yuzvendra Chahal
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Jonny Bairstow, Atharva Taide, Prabhsimran Singh, Sam Curran(c), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma(w), Shashank Singh, Harpreet Brar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Kagiso Rabada
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