Punjab Kings (PBKS) decided to not include Harpreet Brar for the Indian Premier League (IPL 22025) Final against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) tonight.
The decision drew criticism from former domestic batter Priyank Panchal who highlighted that Brar had the edge in the matchup. With dynamite batters like Virat Kohli, Phil Salt and no left-handers in the RCB lineup till No.8, they would have faced difficulty taking on Brar against the spin.
The PBKS spinner also has an impressive record against RCB, having picked 11 wickets in nine games at a tidy economy of 7.66.
Echoing on the same lines, Panchal wrote on his handle on X (formerly Twitter), “Don’t understand why you wouldn’t play Harpreet Brar especially when the biggest strengths of the opposition team are Virat and Salt,”
Nevertheless, PBKS decided to prefer the experienced Yuzvendra Chahal over Brar for the marquee clash. PBKS could have also played Chahal and Brar together, dropping Vyshak Vijaykumar since they have a fourth-pacer option in Marcus Stoinis but decided against tinkering with lineup too much for the summit clash.
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Speaking about the RCB vs PBKS clash, the Shreyas Iyer-led side managed to get an early breakthrough after Kyle Jamieson dismissed danger-man Phil Salt early in the second over. Chahal too displayed his experience, striking in just his second ball of the match to get the better of Mayank Agarwal.
At the time of writing this report, the RCB scoreboard reads 69 for 2 in 8 overs with Virat Kohli and Rajat Patidar currently batting in the middle.
Both teams are eyeing their first IPL trophy tonight and breaking a jinx of 17 years.
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