🏏IPL 2025-Punjab Kings vs Rajasthan Royals, 18th Match 7:30pm IST 🏏 - Page 5

Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson(c), Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel(w), Shimron Hetmyer, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Sandeep Sharma

Teams:

Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Prabhsimran Singh(w), Shreyas Iyer(c), Marcus Stoinis, Nehal Wadhera, Glenn Maxwell, Shashank Singh, Suryansh Shedge, Marco Jansen, Arshdeep Singh, Lockie Ferguson, Yuzvendra Chahal

PBKS bench: Priyansh Arya, Harpreet Brar, Pravin Dubey, Vishnu Vinod, Vijaykumar Vyshak

Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson(c), Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel(w), Shimron Hetmyer, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Sandeep Sharma

RR bench: Kunal Singh Rathore, Shubham Dubey, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal

Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Prabhsimran Singh(w), Shreyas Iyer(c), Marcus Stoinis, Nehal Wadhera, Glenn Maxwell, Shashank Singh, Suryansh Shedge, Marco Jansen, Arshdeep Singh, Lockie Ferguson, Yuzvendra Chahal

Shreyas Iyer: We'll bowl first. Looking at the last game, we were playing on a new wicket and we want to see how the pitch plays. Same mindset here as well. We need to stabilise the rhythm from game one and that's happened. Important to steady the ship from here, boys are in high spirits. Need to maintain composure and calmness throughout the season. We've played the practice games here so we know how the wicket will play. We played our last two games on red soil so hopefully we can adapt early. We have the mindset of champions. Bowling first, no changes for us. Will change things around maybe with the impact sub.

Sanju Samson: Pretty happy to bat first and put on a decent total. (On playing as an impact sub earlier) I could feel what the coaches would be going through, a bit restless and helpless. But excited to be back now. It is a new team and team management, we have got to know each other now and it takes a bit of time. We are geling better now, last game we pretty much had the perfect game. We have a small niggle for Tushar Deshpande, so he's out for today and Yudhvir comes in for him.

Samir D: ".. RR shld think of giving Hetmyer a run at no.3 . He really has the capabilities to score a 100 from that position..with butler gone,Samson's injury n jaiswal's form being jiffy, not able to see any1 scoring 100 for them other than hetmyer. Parag can cme down the order and be a good finisher.. i think they can really take PUNJAB to the cleaners if Hetmyer has his way.. " -- Interesting thought, but given how RR have used him so far, highly doubtful they will try something this radical...

Ansar: "is there a change of captaincy in RR, and if so why?" -- Samson has been cleared to keep/field and hence returns as captain. In the first three games, he could only feature as a batter, which thrust Parag into the hot-seat.

Teams:

Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Prabhsimran Singh(w), Shreyas Iyer(c), Marcus Stoinis, Nehal Wadhera, Glenn Maxwell, Shashank Singh, Suryansh Shedge, Marco Jansen, Arshdeep Singh, Lockie Ferguson, Yuzvendra Chahal

Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson(c), Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel(w), Shimron Hetmyer, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Sandeep Sharma

Here are the Impact substitutes for both the teams:

Rajasthan Royals Impact Subs: Kunal Singh Rathore, Shubham Dubey, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal

Punjab Kings Impact Subs: Priyansh Arya, Harpreet Brar, Praveen Dubey, Vishnu Vinod, Vyshak Vijaykumar