Punjab Kings (PBKS) captain Shreyas Iyer, in his 100th game as skipper in the IPL, won the toss and elected to bowl in a rematch of the IPL 2025 final in Dharamsala.

“I’m not going by the stats,” he said on his decision to bowl while confirming the inclusion of Harpreet Brar and Lockie Ferguson into the bowling first XI. That meant that there was no place for Marco Jansen in the team – he wasn’t even named in the Impact subs list – or fast bowler Xavier Bartlett. PBKS will likely bring in Marcus Stoinis when they bat or Vishnu Vinod, who played a good hand in the last game against Mumbai Indians.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) were without their regular captain Rajat Patidar, who had copped a nasty blow on the back of the helmet in their last game against Kolkata Knight Riders. Jitesh Sharma, leading RCB, said that he would have wanted to bowl first as well but didn’t feel the surface would change much.

Suyash Sharma comes into the team in place of Patidar, while Romario Shepherd replaced fast bowler Jacob Duffy. Rasikh Salam is likely to come in as the Impact Player

A win will not just further consolidate RCB’s position at the top of the table but will also seal their playoffs spot. PBKS, meanwhile, need to get out of the losing rut. Nigh invincible in the first half of the league stage, PBKS have lost five straight games in the second half. On top of the table for the longest time, they have now slipped to fourth and another defeat will further weaken their playoffs chances.

Punjab Kings bowling first XI: 1 Priyansh Arya, 2 Prabhsimran Singh (wk), 3 Cooper Connolly, 4 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 5 Shashank Singh, 6 Suryansh Shedge, 7 Azmatullah Omarzai, 8 Harpreet Brar, 9 Lockie Ferguson, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal

Impact options: Marcus Stoinis, Xavier Bartlett, Vishnu Vinod, Musheer Khan, Praveen Dubey

RCB batting first XI: 1 Jacob Bethell, 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Devdutt Padikkal, 4 Venkatesh Iyer, 5 Tim David, 6 Jitesh Sharma (capt, wk), 7 Romario Shepherd, 8 Krunal Pandya, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Suyash Sharma, 11 Josh Hazlewood

Impact options: Rasikh Salam, Jordan Cox, Abhinandan Singh, Swapnil Singh, Kanishk Chouhan