IPL 2024: Focus on Shashank as PBKS win toss, elect to bowl against Sunrisers

Mullanpur, April 9 (IANS) All eyes will be on middle-order batter Shashank Singh as Punjab Kings won the toss and elected to bowl against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the PCA Stadium here on Tuesday. PBKS are coming into the match on the back of a morale-boosting victory over Gujarat Titans thanks to a sensational knock by Shashank Singh, who struck an unbeaten 61 in Ahmedabad.

On a pitch that is quite hard and has an even coverage of grass, Punjab Kings decided to go with the same playing XI that played Gujarat Titans in their last match.

Punjab Kings skipper Shikhar Dhawan said the pitch is likely to remain the same and they want to know what they are chasing. Ge said that they were lucky to win the last game and that there was no dependency on certain players, with everyone standing up. He said Liam Livingstone is still recovering, and hopefully will be back for the next game.

Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins said he would have bowled first too but on a new venue, he would not mind batting first. SRH are happy with how they are playing. Cummins said they have lots of options with the new ball and at the death, and that is why he is bowling more in the middle overs.

Cummins said SRH are going into the match with the same side that played against CSK.

SRH beat CSK in their last match as both teams have won two and lost three of their last five matches. In 21 matches played between the two teams so far, SRH have won 14 while Punjab Kings won 7.

Playing XIs:

Punjab Kings: Shikhar Dhawan (c), Jonny Bairstow, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sam Curran, Sikandar Raza, Shashank Singh, Ashutosh Sharma, Harpreet Brar, Harshal Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Arshdeep Singh

Impact Substitutes: Prabhsimran Singh, Nathan Ellis, Tanay Thyagarajan, Rahul Chahar, Rishi Dhawan

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Shahbaz Ahmed, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Abdul Samad, Pat Cummins (c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T. Natarajan, Jaydev Unadkat

Impact Substitutes: Umran Malik, Mayank Markande, Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Rahul Tripathi.

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