The 2025 Indian Premier League‘s runner-ups Punjab Kings will kick off their 2026 campaign with an intriguing contest with the 2022 IPL champions Gujarat Titans at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur on March 31.
It was a phenomenal run by Shreyas Iyer’s side in the 2025 season, after topping the group stage and making it to the play-offs for the first time since the 2014 season. They eventually lost the final against Royal Challengers Bengaluru. They have also managed to retain the same group of players in this season too, the expectations will be high.
Gujarat Titans, on the other side, have been one of the most consistent sides in the IPL since their introduction in the league. Captained by Shubman Gill, they will be one of the strong contenders for the title this year.
PBKS vs GT: Toss Update
Punjab Kings’ captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to bowl first. Having a clear target in front of the team helps was his reason for opting to bowl first. Even in the practice matches at the venue, chasing the target was easier, claimed Iyer.
Jason Holder not included in the Playing XI vs PBKS
Gujarat Titans have decided to not include Jason Holder in their Playing XI for their opening encounter. Despite being fit, he was not included as GT preferred Jos Buttler, Glenn Phillips, Rashid Khan and Kagiso Rabada as their four overseas players, which meant Holder could not get a place. He has been included in the impact players list.
PBKS vs GT: What did the captains say?
Shreyas Iyer, PBKS captain
“We’re going to bowl first. I firmly believe that chasing gives you a fair idea about how to go about the target. And also, we played a couple of practice games and whatever total was scored, I think it was easily chased down. So, thinking that at the back of my mind, I’m taking that decision. (Message to the team coming into this season) Honestly speaking, we had a phenomenal last season, but it’s over now. We start from ball one and the only message I have given them is just be yourselves, go out there and express to the best of your abilities and see to it that you’re in the present moment, not thinking way beyond because T20 is such a format where you actually think way ahead of the game. So, the more time you give yourself, the better position you’ll be in. (On not having a great record at this venue) I personally feel that we don’t have to think much about what the result has been in the past. We just want to play the best brand of cricket we’ve been playing and the boys when they came in, all of them were in great mind space and it’s important that we think about now and not think about what has gone past by. So, my only thinking is that we just got to stay in the present and see to it that we play the best game possible. Cooper is come in. Stoinis, Bartlett and Marco Jansen.”
Shubman Gill, GT captain
“The wicket looks pretty good. Rain on and off over the last two days. Looks like a good wicket to bat on. Last year, we had a pretty good season. Two debutants – Glenn and Ashok Sharma. We’ve got Jos, Glenn, Rashid and Rabada. He (Buttler) is such an experienced player, I am sure he’s going to have a great year for us.”
PBKS VS GT: Playing 11s
Punjab Kings
Prabhsimran Singh(w), Cooper Connolly, Shreyas Iyer(c), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal
Impact Players: Priyansh Arya, Harpreet Brar, Praveen Dubey, Vishnu Vinod, Suryansh Shedge
Gujarat Titans
Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Jos Buttler(w), Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, M Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Ashok Sharma, Mohammed Siraj
Impact Players: Prasidh Krishna, Jason Holder, Jayant Yadav, Manav Suthar, Kumar Kushagra
