Is Yuzvendra Chahal playing today's GT vs PBKS IPL 2025 match?

Veteran Indian leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal is set to play his first match for Punjab Kings (PBKS). He was named in the team's playing XI for their IPL 2025 opener against Gujarat Titans (GT) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, March 25.

Chahal was released by Rajasthan Royals (RR) ahead of the IPL 2025 auction. The league's leading wicket-taker was in great demand at the event, with six teams placing bids for him.

The 34-year-old was eventually roped in by PBKS for a staggering ₹18 crore. The deal made him the most expensive spinner in the IPL auction's history. He has picked up 205 wickets across 159 innings at an economy rate of 7.84 in the competition.

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Yuzvendra Chahal is the only frontline spinner in PBKS playing XI for IPL 2025 match against GT

GT skipper Shubman Gill won the toss and chose to field first in the encounter. PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer stated that he too would have preferred bowling first in the match.

Speaking about the lineup, he mentioned that Punjab are going with just one frontline spinner in the form of Yuzvendra Chahal. Iyer said at the toss:

"I would have loved to bowl as well, considering the ball hasn't been pitched yet. Wanted to get a fair idea of what the score can be on this track. It is challenging, but there are familiar faces here. It is not an arduous task, we can get the job done nicely. We have a lot of all-rounders in the team, and it was a headache selecting the side, but we have put the best XI together. We are going with one spinner and three all-rounder."

Here are the two playing XIs for the fixture:

PBKS: Prabhsimran Singh(w), Priyansh Arya, Shreyas Iyer(c), Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Suryansh Shedge, Azmatullah Omarzai, Marco Jansen, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal.

Impact subs: Nehal Wadhera, Praveen Dubey, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Harpreet Brar, Vishnu Vinod.

GT: Shubman Gill(c), Jos Buttler(w), Sai Sudharsan, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Arshad Khan, Rashid Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.

Impact subs: Sherfane Rutherford, Glenn Phillips, Ishant Sharma, Anuj Rawat, Washington Sundar.