Why Shahrukh Khan not playing today: Punjab Kings have made three changes to their Playing XI for this match.
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During the 38th match of the ongoing 15th season of the Indian Premier League between Punjab Kings and Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium, Chennai Super Kings captain Ravindra Jadeja has won the toss and chose to bowl.
“We will bowl first. We don’t know if dew will come or not. Hope that dew comes in the second half. We’ll look to keep things simple, we will stick to our plans. Sometimes you lose the toss and things don’t go well for us. Sometimes you might not bat or bowl well,” Jadeja told Star Sports at the toss.
Coming on the back of their second IPL 2022 victory, Super Kings have refrained from making any change to their Playing XI for their 21st match at the Wankhede Stadium.
Why is Shahrukh Khan not playing vs CSK today?
Having lost six out of seven tosses this season, Punjab Kings captain Mayank Agarwal highlighted “lack of choice” with respect to asked to bat first yet again. Agarwal also talked about the need for a “fresh start” in the second half of IPL 2022 league stage after losing four out of their seven matches thus far.
“I don’t really have a choice. I have lost six out of seven tosses. We don’t mind having a bat first. We don’t want to dwell too much about the last game, we want to move on. Thinking as a seven game tournament, it’s a fresh start for us. Everyone knows what needs to be done, it’s just about executing our plans,” Agarwal told Star Sports at the toss.
Unlike CSK, PBKS have made three changes to their Playing XI including batter Bhanuka Rajapaksa, all-rounder Rishi Dhawan and pacer Sandeep Sharma for batter Shahrukh Khan and pacers Nathan Ellis and Vaibhav Arora.
Kings, who have opted to strengthen their batting unit by adding another overseas option, have provided deserving opportunities to the likes of Sharma and Dhawan. While Sharma has played a match this season, Dhawan is playing an IPL match after as many as six years.
Having made his IPL debut for Mumbai Indians in 2013, the 32-year old player had played for Punjab (then Kings XI) between 2014-2016. In his 26-match IPL career, Dhawan had picked 18 wickets at an average of 35.56, an economy rate of 7.87 and a strike rate of 27.11. Dhawan’s 153 runs in 17 IPL innings had come at a strike rate of 113.33 back in the day.
Coming on the back of a blockbuster Vijay Hazare Trophy season (winning captain, second-highest wicket-taker and second-highest run-scorer), Dhawan was bagged by PBKS for INR 55 lakh earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Shahrukh Khan, who was bought for INR 9 crore, has been left out after minimal returns. In seven IPL 2022 innings, Shahrukh’s 98 runs have come at an average and strike rate of 16.33 and 100 respectively.
