Punjab Kings will tackle the Royal Challengers Bengaluru within the first qualifier in a battle of the trophy-less groups. Since 2014, the Kings have certified for the playoffs for the primary time whereas RCB are taking part in the primary qualifier for the primary time in 9 years.

Chandigarh:

An uncharted territory awaits two of the three legacy trophy-less groups – Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) – as they lock horns within the first qualifier of the continued IPL season in Mullanpur, a venue which is getting the primary style of knockouts of a high-profile competitors. It is a playoff match however at Punjab Kings’ dwelling venue within the north of India, the place the house facet play towards the revered boy from West Delhi, Virat Kohli, who has knocked down one other 600-plus season of runs with relative ease.

For Punjab Kings, it was a reunion of Shreyas Iyer and Ricky Ponting, and from the look of it, it has been fairly profitable. They could not win the trophy collectively for the Delhi Capitals in 2020, however they’ve an opportunity to go one higher for Punjab Kings and it started with ending within the high two and now going a notch forward. Iyer has led from the entrance however other than Iyer, one facet which Ponting was eager to amend at Punjab was create an Indian core, getting the likes of Arshdeep and Chahal and a gaggle of uncapped stars, who’re smashing it round with bat and ball.

For RCB, the lack of Tim David will likely be big however the return of Josh Hazlewood is as large. Will Rajat Patidar once more play as an affect participant? There are a few structural points with RCB, provided that Nuwan Thushara did nicely within the final recreation and the bowling hasn’t been nice for RCB in the previous couple of matches. Do they play each Thushara and Hazlewood after which who performs rather than Liam Livingstone? Manoj Bhadage or Swastik Chikara? Or can let the remainder of the line-up stay the identical and swap Hazlewood for Thushara however Livingstone can not seem to purchase a run, Patidar has fallen off and Yash Dayal does not look the half.

On type, Punjab begin as favourites however RCB are coming off one of many run-chases of the match. And seldom do knockouts rely upon high quality, logic, expertise on paper and type.

My Dream11 workforce for IPL 2025 Qualifier 1, PBKS vs RCB

Priyansh Arya, Shreyas Iyer, Josh Inglis (c), Virat Kohli, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kyle Jamieson, Josh Hazlewood (vc)

Probable Playing XIIs

Punjab Kings: Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Josh Inglis, Shreyas Iyer (c), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Azmatullah Omarzai/Yuzvendra Chahal, Harpreet Brar, Kyle Jamieson, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Arshdeep Singh

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Phil Salt, Rajat Patidar, Mayank Agarawal, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (c), Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yash Dayal, Nuwan Thushara/Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma