Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals took a big decision (Photo-PTI)
IPL 2026: To win, Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals dropped only four big players from the playing eleven. In the 40th match of IPL, Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag won the toss and decided to bowl first. After winning the toss, Riyan Parag told that he has made two major changes in the team. Ryan Parag told that Shimron Hetmyer and Ravi Bishnoi have been dropped and Dasun Shanaka and Yash Punja have been given a chance in their place. Shreyas Iyer also said that there have been two changes in his team. Suryansh Shedge has been given a chance in place of Shashank Singh, while Lockie Ferguson has been given a chance in place of Xavier Bartlett.
Punjab Kings playing eleven
Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Shreyas Iyer, Cooper Connelly, Suryansh Shedge, Nehal Wadhera, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Janson, Lockie Ferguson, Arshdeep Singh and Yuzvendra Chahal.
Playing XI of Rajasthan Royals
Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Ryan Parag, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Dasun Shanaka, Joffra Archer, Nandre Berger, Brijesh Sharma and Yash Raj Punja.
Shimron Hetmyer’s poor performance
It was a compulsion to drop Shimron Hetmyer because this batsman has proved to be a miserable failure in IPL 2026. Hetmyer has scored only 72 runs in 6 matches at an average of 14.40. His strike rate was 116.12. Ravi Bishnoi has taken 11 wickets but the reason why he was dropped has not been revealed. Punjab Kings dropped Shashank Singh because this player is not completely fit. Shashank had fielded very poorly in the last two matches. This player had dropped 3 catches in the same match. However, despite this the Punjab team won the match. Xavier Bartless took 5 wickets in 7 matches this season and his economy rate was more than 11 runs per over.
