Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain Sanju Samson won the toss and opted to bat first against Punjab Kings (PBKS) at Barsapara Cricket Stadium, Guwahati on May 15. In Jos Buttler's absence, Samson handed the Indian Premier League (IPL) debut cap to English wicketkeeper-batter Tom Kohler-Cadmore. Samson also said that South Africa's Donovan Ferreira is likely to come in as impact player.
“We'll bat first in these conditions. 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. 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 Fereira as an impact sub later,” Samson said after winning the toss.
PBKS captain Sam Curran made a couple of changes to the side. Curran hopes to spoil RR's campaign. The Samson-led side have already qualified for the playoff. He replaced South Africa pacer Kagiso Rabada with Australia's Nathan Ellis. Also, he brought back left-arm spinner Harpreet Brar in the side.
Tonight we play a really good team, and we can spoil a few campaigns now and finish with some pride. 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 because 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.
RR 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
PBKS 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
Head-to-head
The two teams have gone up against each other 27 times in the IPL. RR have had an upper hand with 16 wins.
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