Visiting skipper Ajinkya Rahane has won the toss and put his men to field first. They have made three changes to the squad - Ashton Turner makes his IPL debut. Stuart Binny is back. And Ish Sodhi plays. Steven Smith is out.
“We'll look to bowl first. It's a dry wicket and on this ground chasing teams always win. What is important is playing good cricket throughout 40 overs and start fresh. It's a funny format so you need to give your best,” the RR captain said.
On the other hand, Punjab were forced to make a sudden change, minutes ahead of the toss. Earlier, they handed the debut cap to Moises Henriques but he sustained an injury at the last moment. As a result, David Miller comes in for Sam Curran.
At the same time, Arshdeep Singh makes his debut and replaces Sarfaraz Khan while Mujeeb comes in for Andrew Tye.
“We are playing three spinners so probably we want to make the most use of dry conditions. There has been quite a cloud cover throughout the day, hopefully, there is no dew,” said Ashwin.
Rajasthan Royals: Ajinkya Rahane(c), Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w), Rahul Tripathi, Ashton Turner, Stuart Binny, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Jaydev Unadkat, Dhawal Kulkarni, Ish Sodhi
Kings XI Punjab: Lokesh Rahul, Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, David Miller, Mandeep Singh, Nicholas Pooran(w), Ravichandran Ashwin(c), Murugan Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Arshdeep Singh