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Virat Kohli will lead the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) against the Punjab Kings at the PCA Stadium in Mohali on Thursday (April 20).
The development comes just a few days after regular captain Faf du Plessis suffered discomfort while batting against Chennai Super Kings, a match that RCB lost by eight runs.
At the toss, Kohli confirmed that Du Plessis would feature against Punjab Kings as an impact player.
“Faf potentially can't be fielding today, so he'll be playing as an impact player, switching with Vyshak," Kohli said. "We got to do what we wanted; we would have batted first; the pitch could get slow."
"Some scruff marks will help the bowlers going deep into the game," he added. "Taking one game at a time, focusing on our own game, make the most of crunch situations; we haven't done that so far in the tournament. No other changes for us.”
Speaking recently to Star Sports, Du Plessis confirmed that he injured his rib while diving during the RCB-CSK game:
“Early on in the match, I was diving around, and I thought I went at it with my rib; that was the cause of discomfort.”
Virat Kohli and Co. bat first against PBKS
Punjab Kings stand-in captain Sam Curran won the toss and opted to bowl first against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Thursday.
Liam Livingstone has been included in the XI after missing a plethora of games due to injury. Meanwhile, Kagiso Rabada has made way for Nathan Ellis.
Virat Kohli and Co., meanwhile, have not made any changes to their playing XI.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Virat Kohli (c), Faf du Plessis, Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik (w), Wanindu Hasaranga, Suyash Prabhudessai, Harshal Patel, Wayne Parnell, Mohammed Siraj
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Atharva Taide, Matthew Short, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran (c), Jitesh Sharma (w), Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Nathan Ellis, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh
Follow PBKS vs RCB live score updates here.
