Punjab Kings will take on the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the first qualifier in a battle of the trophy-less teams. Since 2014, the Kings have qualified for the playoffs for the first time while RCB are playing the first qualifier for the first time in nine years.
An uncharted territory awaits two of the three legacy trophy-less teams – Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) – as they lock horns in the first qualifier of the ongoing IPL season in Mullanpur, a venue which is getting the first taste of knockouts of a high-profile competition. It is a playoff match but at Punjab Kings’ home venue in the north of India, where the home side play against the revered boy from West Delhi, Virat Kohli, who has knocked down another 600-plus season of runs with relative ease.
For Punjab Kings, it was a reunion of Shreyas Iyer and Ricky Ponting, and from the look of it, it has been pretty successful. They couldn’t win the trophy together for the Delhi Capitals in 2020, but they have a chance to go one better for Punjab Kings and it began with finishing in the top two and now going a notch ahead. Iyer has led from the front but apart from Iyer, one aspect which Ponting was keen to amend at Punjab was create an Indian core, getting the likes of Arshdeep and Chahal and a group of uncapped stars, who are smashing it around with bat and ball.
For RCB, the loss of Tim David will be huge but the return of Josh Hazlewood is as big. Will Rajat Patidar again play as an impact player? There are a couple of structural issues with RCB, given that Nuwan Thushara did well in the last game and the bowling hasn’t been great for RCB in the last few matches. Do they play both Thushara and Hazlewood and then who plays in place of Liam Livingstone? Manoj Bhadage or Swastik Chikara? Or can let the rest of the line-up remain the same and swap Hazlewood for Thushara but Livingstone can’t seem to buy a run, Patidar has fallen off and Yash Dayal doesn’t look the part.
On form, Punjab start as favourites but RCB are coming off one of the run-chases of the tournament. And seldom do knockouts depend upon quality, logic, talent on paper and form.
My Dream11 team for IPL 2025 Qualifier 1, PBKS vs RCB
Priyansh Arya, Shreyas Iyer, Josh Inglis (c), Virat Kohli, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kyle Jamieson, Josh Hazlewood (vc)
Probable Playing XIIs
Punjab Kings: Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Josh Inglis, Shreyas Iyer (c), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Azmatullah Omarzai/Yuzvendra Chahal, Harpreet Brar, Kyle Jamieson, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Arshdeep Singh
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Phil Salt, Rajat Patidar, Mayank Agarawal, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (c), Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yash Dayal, Nuwan Thushara/Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma