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In the 58th Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 match, Glenn Maxwell of Royal Challengers and Kagiso Rabada of Punjab Kings were excluded from the respective playing XIs. At the toss time, the reason for their exclusion wasn’t revealed, but Glenn Maxwell made way for Lockie Ferguson, while Kagiso Rabada was left out in favour of Liam Livingstone.
Sam Curran, the Punjab Kings captain, won the toss and decided to field first, expecting the pitch to provide some assistance to the bowlers early on. The PBKS team management decided to give an IPL debut to Vidwath Kaverappa, the right-arm fast bowler, known to swing the ball and hit the deck hard.
Why are Maxwell and Rabada not playing in PBKS vs RCB match in IPL 2024?
The comments from Sam Curran after winning the toss, as per Cricbuzz, read, “Going to bowl. Looks like they've watered the wicket a bit, might be something early on. Looking to put RCB under pressure early. With the side we've picked today, looking to take wickets with the new ball. Pretty simple for us now - need few results to go for us and win our remaining games. Livingstone comes in for Rabada. Our strength is our batting.”
Meanwhile, Faf du Plessis, the captain of Royal Challengers Bengaluru, also admitted that he would have fielded first after winning the toss. He remarked, “Would've done the same. Been a great turnaround for us. Last few games we've been clinical. Focus remains the same, not too much on the table, just the way we want to play. Maxwell out for Lockie Ferguson.”
Today’s match between RCB and PBKS at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) Stadium in Dharamshala is critical for both teams to finish in the top four of the IPL 2024. The loser of this contest will be officially eliminated from the IPL playoffs race.
