Shikhar Dhawan’s Punjab Kings suffered their first loss in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 season, going down to Sunrisers Hyderabad in the first match, while defending champions Gujarat Titans were stunned by a brilliant Rinku Singh in their last tie as well. Now PBKS and GT will be facing off against each other in match no. 18 of IPL 2023 at the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) Stadium in Mohali on Thursday.
PBKS have received a big boost with powerful England all-rounder Liam Livingstone joining the squad in Mohali earlier this week. In IPL 2022 season, Livingstone notched up 437 runs from 14 matches at a strike-rate of 182.08 with four half-centuries. He also hit one of the biggest six in the season.
Livingstone though has been out of action since December last year, since making his debut against Pakistan. The English all-rounder will be expected to replace Matthew Short in the PBKS line-up for the match against the Gujarat Titans.
Dhawan also has the option of brining in South African pacer Kagiso Rabada into the lineup although his replacement Nathan Ellis has been impressive so far in IPL 2023. Rabada, though, provides a much-more wicket-taking option for PBKS especially on Mohali track which has know to assist the pace bowlers.
Gujarat Titans, on the other hand, will get Hardik Pandya back for the game in Mohali. Pandya missed the team’s last match against KKR due to illness and the side was led by Rashid Khan.
The GT all-rounder should replace Abhinav Manohar in the Playing 11 against PBKS with David Miller, Alzarri Joseph and Rashid Khan expected to be the first choice players for the game. Like the last match, GT can bring Ireland’s Josh Little into the side as Impact Player if they are bowling second in the match.
PBKS could start without Sikandar Raza in the match if they are bowling first and bring him in to replace Rabada in the second innings of the game.
#SherSquad nu sadde _s vallon #Baisakhi di lakh lakh vadhayi hove! _
May this year brings only health and happiness to everyone. __#HappyBaisakhi #SaddaPunjab #JazbaHaiPunjabi pic.twitter.com/fRduWkK0JS
— Punjab Kings (@PunjabKingsIPL) April 13, 2023
Punjab Kings: Prabhsimran Singh, Shikhar Dhawan (c), Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, M Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Nathan Ellis, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh
Gujarat Titans: Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Hardik Pandya (c), Vijay Shankar, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Alzarri Joseph, Mohammed Shami, R Sai Kishore
