Kolkata Knight Riders and Punjab Kings are ready to face each other again in the match 44 of the ongoing IPL after their last exciting thriller. They played an exciting match against KKR where PBKS defended a score of just 111 runs. Winning the toss, Shreyas Iyer chose to bat first and invited the home team to field first.
Both the teams who are at an interesting spot in the points table, starting strong Punjab Kings has brought a complete different game for Punjab Kings on the other hand, the defending champions are struggling with consistency and are placed in the bottom half of the points table.
Announcing the squad and changes in the playing XI, Punjab Kings opted for a change in the squad and included Glenn Maxwell and Omarzai in the playing XI for match 44. On the other hand, Ajinkya Rahane also announced two changes and said Powell comes in for Moeen and Sakariya comes in for Ramandeep. But those changes didn’t sit right with the fans, and they were amused by PBKS’ decision to include Glenn Maxwell in place of Marcus Stoinis.
Why did Glenn Maxwell replace Marcus Stoinis?
Both the teams went with few changes in the squad and one among them is Glenn Maxwell in place of Marcus Stoinis. He was earlier dropped from the playing XI due to his poor performance in the ongoing IPL.
The main reason why Punjab chose Maxwell over Marcus Stoinis is that he can add variety to the bowling attack and can be useful with his spin against KKR as a left-right combination. Having Maxwell in the lineup adds an extra spin option alongside Chahal, and while he hasn’t fired with the bat yet, he has the potential to be a game-changer if he finds his rhythm.
PBKS vs KKR Playing XIs
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Shreyas Iyer(c), Josh Inglis(w), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Glenn Maxwell, Azmatullah Omarzai, Marco Jansen, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Rovman Powell, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy
