• Source:JND
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Punjab Kings vs Rajasthan Royals, IPL 2025: Sanju Samson has made his return as the captain of the Rajasthan Royals in the ongoing IPL 2025 after playing the first three matches as an impact player. Samson, who has now completely recovered from his finger injury, came out at the toss for their match against the Punjab Kings on Saturday.

While Samson replaced Riyan Parag as RR's skipper, Punjab Kings won the toss and elected to field first against Rajasthan Royals in match 18 at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur.

This is Punjab's first home game in the ongoing tournament. They have looked in great touch so far and have two wins under their belt. They will be heading into the match with an aim to make it three out of three.

While Punjab fielded the same lineup for their third game, RR came up with a change as Tushar Deshpande missed out due to a niggle with Yudhvir Singh replacing him in tjeir playing XI.

"We'll bowl first. Looking at the last game, we were playing on a new wicket and we want to see how the pitch plays. Same mindset here as well. We need to stabilise the rhythm from game one and that's happened. Important to steady the ship from here; the boys are in high spirits. Need to maintain composure and calmness throughout the season. We've played the practice games here, so we know how the wicket will play. We played our last two games on red soil, so hopefully we can adapt early. We have the mindset of champions. Bowling first, no changes for us. Will change things around, maybe with the impact sub," Shreyas said at the toss.

Rajasthan Royals kicked off their IPL 2025 campaign on a disappointing note, losing their first two matches against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders, but they bounced back with a win against Chennai Super Kings in Guwahati.

"Pretty happy to bat first and put on a decent total. (On playing as an impact sub earlier) I could feel what the coaches would be going through, a bit restless and helpless. But excited to be back now. It is a new team and team management, we have got to know each other now, and it takes a bit of time. We are getting better now. Last game, we pretty much had the perfect game. We have a small niggle for Tushar Deshpande, so he's out for today and Yudhvir comes in for him," RR captain Sanju Samson said.


PBKS vs RR Playing XIs, IPL 2025:

Punjab Kings: Prabhsimran Singh(w), Shreyas Iyer(c), Marcus Stoinis, Nehal Wadhera, Glenn Maxwell, Shashank Singh, Suryansh Shedge, Marco Jansen, Arshdeep Singh, Lockie Ferguson, Yuzvendra Chahal

Impact Subs: Priyansh Arya, Harpreet Brar, Praveen Dubey, Vishnu Vinod, Vyshak Vijaykumar


Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson(c), Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel(w), Shimron Hetmyer, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Sandeep Sharma

Impact Subs: Kunal Singh Rathore, Shubham Dubey, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal