 "Josh Hazlewood is among the leading wicket-takers in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League. AP")
Royal Challengers Bengaluru won the toss, and skipper Rajat Patidar opted to field against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Qualifier 1 of the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) at the New PCA Stadium in Mullanpur on Thursday. Patidar returns as captain for RCB after playing the last two games as an ‘Impact Sub’ due to fitness issues, with wicketkeeper-batter Jitesh Sharma having filled in as captain for him.
LIVE | Punjab Kings vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru, IPL 2025 Qualifier 1 in Mullanpur
Both teams made changes to their lineups; while Royal Challengers Bengaluru brought Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood in place of Sri Lanka’s Nuwan Thushara, Punjab Kings replaced Marco Jansen with Azmatullah Omarzai.
Hazlewood thus makes his first appearance for RCB in over a month, and remains their leading wicket-taker with 18 scalps despite such a long absence. Jansen, meanwhile, is a forced change as he has had to fly out along with other South African cricketers who are in the squad for the ICC World Test Championship final against Australia.
Senior leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, however, wasn’t included in the RCB playing XI, and it’s not clear whether he is yet to recover his fitness or has been overlooked.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThe two teams had finished as the top-two teams on the points table at the end of the league phase of the season, and while the winner gets direct entry into the final, the loser will face the winner of the Eliminator in Qualifier 2.
PBKS and RCB have a 1-1 record this season; while Punjab won a low-scoring thriller at the Chinnaswamy, Bengaluru bounced back with a commanding seven-wicket victory in Mullanpur just two days later thanks to Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 73.
IPL 2025 Qualifier 1, PBKS and RCB playing XIs
PBKS: Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Josh Inglis(w), Shreyas Iyer(c), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Azmatullah Omarzai, Harpreet Brar, Arshdeep Singh, Kyle Jamieson; Impact Subs: Vijaykumar Vyshak, Praveen Dubey, Suryansh Shedge, Musheer Khan, Xavier Bartlett.
RCB: Virat Kohli, Philip Salt, Rajat Patidar(c), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma(w), Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yash Dayal, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma; Impact Subs: Mayank Agarawal, Rasikh Salam, Manoj Bhandage, Tim Seifert, Swapnil Singh.