In the 18th match of the Indian Premier League 2025 (IPL 2025), the Punjab Kings (PBKS) and the Rajasthan Royals (RR) are locking horns with each other on Saturday, April 5.
The match between the Punjab Kings (PBKS) and the Rajasthan Royals (RR) is being hosted by the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur.
Also Read: Revealed: Why is Tushar Deshpande not playing today’s match for RR against PBKS in IPL 2025?
Punjab are not a team known for their dominance at home. Since the 2023 season, they have had three different venues as home. From the PCA stadium in Mohali, they shifted base to Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur, while also playing home matches in Dharamsala.
PBKS faced four losses out of five games in Mullanpur and have a winless record in Dharamsala. However, under head coach Ricky Ponting and captain Shreyas Iyer, they have looked like a completely different unit, starting their campaign with back-to-back wins – which is an unfamiliar territory for the Punjab Kings.
They will be looking forward to continuing their dominant run against the Rajasthan Royals, who bounced back from two early losses with a win over Chennai Super Kings.
Even though they managed to register a win over, they have a lot of issues to solve going forward in the competition. One of the problems they had was with the leadership, as Riyan Parag was captaining the team with Sanju Samson not fully fit. However, that issue has now been addressed with Samson being declared fit to lead the side.
Talking about the head-to-head record, the Rajasthan Royals have a 16-12 edge over the Punjab Kings which includes six wins out of nine since 2020.
IPL 2025: Punjab Kings win the toss and opt to field
Speaking after winning the toss, PBKS skipper Shreyas Iyer said that everyone in the camp is in high spirits. He elaborated:
“We’ll bowl first. Looking at the last game, we were playing on a new wicket and we want to see how the pitch plays. Same mindset here as well. We need to stabilise the rhythm from game one and that’s happened. Important to steady the ship from here, boys are in high spirits.
“Need to maintain composure and calmness throughout the season. We’ve played the practice games here so we know how the wicket will play. We played our last two games on red soil so hopefully we can adapt early. We have the mindset of champions. Bowling first, no changes for us. Will change things around maybe with the impact sub.”
Meanwhile, RR captain Sanju Samson said that he was happy that they got the opportunity to bat first. He stated:
“Pretty happy to bat first and put on a decent total. We have a small niggle for Tushar Deshpande, so he’s out for today and Yudhvir comes in for him.”
IPL 2025: List of impact players nominated by PBKS and RR in match 18
Rajasthan Royals Impact Subs: Kunal Singh Rathore, Shubham Dubey, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal
Punjab Kings Impact Subs: Priyansh Arya, Harpreet Brar, Praveen Dubey, Vishnu Vinod, Vyshak Vijaykumar
IPL 2025: PBKS vs RR – Playing XIs
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Prabhsimran Singh(w), Shreyas Iyer(c), Marcus Stoinis, Nehal Wadhera, Glenn Maxwell, Shashank Singh, Suryansh Shedge, Marco Jansen, Arshdeep Singh, Lockie Ferguson, Yuzvendra Chahal
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson(c), Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel(w), Shimron Hetmyer, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Sandeep Sharma
