RCB opt to bowl vs PBKS, Shepherd in for Livingstone

Toss Royal Challengers Bengaluru chose to bowl vs Punjab Kings

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) captain Rajat Patidar called correctly and opted to bowl in the afternoon game against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Mullanpur.

RCB brought in allrounder Romario Shepherd in place of Liam Livingstone, who has struggled this season.

"The wicket looks decent and it will not change much. Batting second will give more clarity," Patidar said at the toss. "It is an afternoon game and we will try and stop them as early as possible."

Shreyas Iyer, the PBKS captain, said that he wanted to bowl first as well and confirmed that PBKS were going in unchanged. This is PBKS' first afternoon game of the season.

"Afternoon game, wicket would be dry but at the end of he day, we will try and make use of it," Shreyas said. "It's important that we give ourselves some time, see how the ball is pitching and moving. This is our first afternoon game and hopefully we get a good score on the board."

PBKS might bring in one of Harpreet Brar and Vijaykumar Vyshak as the Impact Sub while bowling, with Priyansh Arya going out. RCB might bring in Devdutt Padikkal in place of Suyash Sharma while batting.

These two teams are facing off in less than 48 hours after they played each other in a rain-reduced 14-overs-a-side contest on Friday. PBKS won the encounter by five wickets and 11 balls to spare, but the win was far from easy for them.

PBKS have won five and lost two matches so far this season and a win here will take them to the top of the table.

RCB, meanwhile, have won four matches so far but all four wins have come on the road. This is the first time these two teams are facing off in Mullanpur.

Playing XIs and impact subs

PBKS XI: 1 Prabhsimran Singh, 2 Priyansh Arya, 3 Shreyas Iyer, 4 Josh Inglis, 5 Nehal Wadhera, 6 Shashank Singh, 7 Marcus Stoinis, 8 Marco Jansen, 9 Xavier Bartlett, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal

PBKS Impact Player options: Harpreet Brar, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Pravin Dubey, Glenn Maxwell, Suryansh Shedge

RCB XI: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Rajat Patidar (wk), 4 Romario Shephard, 5 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 6 Tim David, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Josh Hazlewood, 10 Yash Dayal, 11 Suyash Sharma

RCB Impact Player options: Devdutt Padikkal, Rasikh Dar, Manoj Bhandage, Jacob Bethell, Swapnil Singh