Punjab Kings (PBKS) won the toss and chose to bowl first against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in their IPL 2026 clash being played at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur in New Chandigarh.
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What did the captains say at the toss?
PBKS skipper Shreyas Iyer, after winning the toss said:
"We're going to bowl first. It's a day game and obviously want to get a knack of how the wicket is going to play and a fair idea. But other than that, that's what we've been doing in the last couple of games. We've been thriving on that. (Things to address?) I personally feel that you can't control the nature of the weather. You've just got to go with the flow. And I personally feel that we don't have to address anything at any point of time. Just back each other, back all the youngsters in the team. The more you tell them, the confusing it gets for them. So, it's better that they live in their own nature and express themselves. No, we're going with the same team. Actually, bowling first, Priyansh comes in for Nehal," said Shreyas Iyer
On the other hand, SRH's stand-in captain, after losing the toss said:
"We would have loved to bowl first. But yeah, I think wicket looks pretty hard to me. And it's about playing good cricket in the first innings. (On captaining) Obviously, it's a big disadvantage for any team, Pat is a tremendous bowler. He gets on with an experience of his. But still, I feel we've got a young side, young bowlers today in the team. And hopefully, we'll just try and execute the plans, which is the most important thing in T20 cricket. Yeah, there are two changes. Salil comes in in place of Livingstone and Praful Hinge, it's his debut game, in place of Jaydev Unadkat," said Ishan Kishan.
Sunrisers Hyderabad' Playing XI:
(Playing XI): Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan(w/c), Heinrich Klaasen, Salil Arora, Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Shivang Kumar, Harshal Patel, Eshan Malinga
Impact subs: Jaydev Unadkat, Liam Livingstone, Shivam Mavi, Praful Hinge, Kamindu Mendis
Punjab Kings' Playing XI:
Playing XI: Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh(w), Cooper Connolly, Shreyas Iyer(c), Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal
Impact subs: Nehal Wadhera, Vishnu Vinod, Suryansh Shedge, Yash Thakur, Harpreet Brar