Why is PBKS captain Shikhar Dhawan not playing today’s IPL 2023 match?

Punjab Kings (PBKS) suffered a huge blow ahead of their IPL 2023 match against Lucknow Super Giants as their captain Shikhar Dhawan was ruled out of the contest on Saturday (April 15).

He has been their linchpin in their batting department so far, scoring 233 runs in 4 games, and is the current orange cap holder. Sam Curran will stand in as captain in his absence for PBKS against the LSG side.

The English all-rounder revealed that Dhawan picked up a niggle during PBKS' previous match, which forced him to sit out of the game. On the reason behind Dhawan's absence from the LSG clash, Sam Curran said:

"Shikhar picked up an injury last game, don't know how bad it is but hopefully he won't be out long. His absence is huge."

LSG are currently sitting in second position on the points table after winning three of their four games. PBKS are outside the top 4 as they won two while losing as many.

Sam Curran won the toss and opted to bowl first on a fresh red soil surface, which is expected to aid batting. LSG captain KL Rahul was not too disappointed after losing the toss, as he opened by saying that he was ready to accept both batting and bowling first.

He said:

"Happy either way. It's the first game on this strip so it's just about going in and enjoying our cricket. It's exciting firstly to challenge ourselves as a group to play in different conditions."

He added:

"First season here so there's not much expectation from ourselves. Just try and assess the conditions and do well as a team. Few people will keep coming in and going out with the impact player rule as well. Each game we've turned up and put up brilliant performances when we've been challenged every time. We've found answers so far. "

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LSG playing XI:

KL Rahul (c), Kyle Mayers, Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Ayush Badoni, Ravi Bishnoi, Mark Wood, Avesh Khan, Yudhvir Singh Charak

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PBKS playing XI:

Atharva Taide, Matthew Short, Harpreet Bhatia, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sikandar Raza, Sam Curran (c), Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh