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As the Royal Challengers Bangalore took on Punjab Kings in an Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 match on Thursday, two stand-in skippers arrived in the form of Virat Kohli and Sam Curran. While Kohli was deputising for injured Faf du Plessis, Curran wore the captain’s hat in place of Shikhar Dhawan who missed the second consecutive match for his franchise. After Curran opted to bowl first upon winning the toss, Kohli was asked the reason behind him donning the skipper’s hat in place of Du Plessis.
Kohli explained that Du Plessis is carrying a rib injury because of which he wouldn’t be able to field. Hence, the decision to play him as an ‘Impact Player’ was taken by the team management.
“Faf potentially can’t be fielding today, so he’ll be playing as an impact player, switching with Vyshak. We got to do what we wanted, we would have batted first, the pitch could get slow, some scruff marks will help the bowlers going deep into the game. Taking one game at a time, focussing on our own game, make the most of crunch situations, we haven’t done that so far in the tournament. No other changes for us,” Kohli revealed at the time of the toss.
Royal Challengers Bangalore Playing XI:Virat Kohli(c), Faf du Plessis, Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik(w), Wanindu Hasaranga, Suyash Prabhudessai, Harshal Patel, Wayne Parnell, Mohammed Siraj
While Faf will come out to bat with Kohli, it would Vijaykumar Vyshak who will be playing in his place when the substitution takes place.
PBKS stand-in skipper Curran, on the other hand, explained that Liam Livingstone is back in the playing XI for his side while Nathan Ellis has also returned, replacing Kagiso Rabada.
“We will bowl first, did well in the last game and we’ll take some confidence, conditions will not change a lot. Shikhar is getting closer, but he’ll miss out today. He’s a quality player, but the younger lot will have to shape up, Livingstone is back and we have Ellis back in place of KG,” he said.
Punjab Kings Playing XI:Atharva Taide, Matthew Short, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran(c), Jitesh Sharma(w), Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Nathan Ellis, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh
RCB are presently 8th in the points table while PBKS are 5th. A big win in Mohali could take the Bengaluru franchise into the top half.
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