Match Preview

Punjab Kings are heading into this season with a new look, a new avatar, and a new name. This squad of theirs is probably their best side ever. They are playing their first match of this season against Rajasthan Royals, the team with a new captain. This RR squad highly depends on their foreign attack, but they some of the best all-rounders in business.

Punjab Kings’ biggest strength this season is their top-order batsmen. They have KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, and Chris Gayle. All three are very explosive batsmen and usually score most of the runs for Punjab.  Their weakness, on the other hand, is their middle order. They do not have much experience here, and that would probably put some pressure on the top 3. Nicholas Pooran is their most experienced player in the middle order.

Rajasthan Royals’ biggest strength this season is their all-rounders. They have Ben Stokes, Chris Morris, Rahul Tewatia, Shreyas Gopal, and Riyan Parag. All these are genuine all-rounders who will have different roles in the team. Their biggest weakness is the lack of experienced Indian Players. They have some talented Indian players, but they are not very experienced. Captain Sanju Samson is their most experienced Indian Player, and he too is fairly young. Plus, the fact that they can only use four overseas players will hurt them a little bit.

Predicted Playing XI’s

Rajasthan Royals (RR)

Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Sanju Samson (c&wk), Riyan Parag, Chris Morris, Rahul Tewatia, Shreyas Gopal, Mayank Markande, Mustafizur Rehman, Jaydev Unadkat, Kartik Tyagi

Punjab Kings (PBKS)

KL Rahul (c&wk), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Dawid Malan, Mandeep Singh, Moises Henriques, Shahrukh Khan, Jhye Richardson, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh

Toss and Pitch

The pitch at Wankhede is a high-scoring pitch, but it also has some bounce to it which assists fast bowlers. The par score here would be 185 runs. The team winning the toss would want to field first.