Two IPL teams – Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru – who have never won a title despite being part of the league since its inception, will play each other for a place in the final at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur, Chandigarh in the ongoing IPL 2025 on Thursday.
While PBKS had finished the league phase at the top of the standings, RCB had confirmed their top-2 finish after beating LSG in their last game.
RCB will receive a huge boost as Josh Hazlewood and Tim David will be available for the playoffs. Nuwan Thushara had impressed against LSG, and he might retain his place in the final XI.
On the other hand, PBKS top-order has delivered consistently and they would have gained a lot of confidence after Josh Inglis played a match-winning knock of 73 runs in the previous game against Mumbai Indians.
Shreyas Iyer has been leading the team from the front and the Mohali-based team would be hopeful that their lead spinner Yuzvendra Chahal returns to the team’s playing XI after recovering from a wrist injury.
When these two teams had met earlier in the season, both had won one match each.
Head to Head: Matches: 35, Won by PBKS: 18, Won by RCB: 17.
RCB Probable XII: Phil Salt, Virat Kohli, Mayank Agarwal, Rajat Patidar (c), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Nuwan Thushara, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal, Suyash Sharma
PBKS Probable XII: Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Shreyas Iyer (c), Nehal Wadhera, Josh Inglis (wk), Marcus Stoinis, Shashank Singh, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Vijaykumar Vyshak.
Punjab Kings Squad: Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh(w), Shreyas Iyer(c), Nehal Wadhera, Josh Inglis, Shashank Singh, Glenn Maxwell, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Suryansh Shedge, Yash Thakur, Harpreet Brar, Praveen Dubey, Pyla Avinash, Musheer Khan, Harnoor Singh, Kuldeep Sen, Azmatullah Omarzai, Aaron Hardie, Vishnu Vinod, Marcus Stoinis.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru Squad: Philip Salt, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar(c), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma(w), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma, Yash Dayal, Mayank Agarwal, Rasikh Dar Salam, Manoj Bhandage, Jacob Bethell, Swapnil Singh, Abhinandan Singh, Swastik Chikara, Mohit Rathee, Nuwan Thushara, Romario Shepherd.
