After two last-ball finishes and a jaw-dropping display by the domineering 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, the IPL 2026 moves into its third weekend with two fixtures scheduled for Saturday.
Today’s afternoon match will see the Punjab Kings (PBKS) return to their home ground in Mullanpur, New Chandigarh, after being on the road for their last two matches.
After beginning their campaign by beating Gujarat Titans at home, PBKS hammered Chennai Super Kings at the Chepauk before their match against Kolkata Knight Riders in Kolkata was washed out.
Shreyas Iyer’s team remains one of the two sides, the other being the Rajasthan Royals, to have not suffered a defeat yet this season. A victory today will see PBKS solidify their position just below RR on the points table.
PBKS’ opponent today is Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), a depleted unit that has had to do without skipper Pat Cummins on the field.
Under Ishan Kishan, SRH lost matches to Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Lucknow Super Giants, but in between those two defeats, SRH thumped Kolkata by 65 runs. SRH have had similar problems to last season: Travi-Shek hasn’t fired yet, and their bowling attack has lacked teeth.
Is Pat Cummins playing today against PBKS?
No, Cummins is not available yet. He had flown back to Australia about 10 days ago for final scans on his back. If cleared, Cummins is reportedly expected to rejoin the SRH squad on April 17. However, his participation will remain in doubt, as he had previously said, “If nothing goes wrong, [I’ll] play the back half [of the IPL].”
SRH are also without the services of England speedster Brydon Carse, who is nursing a hand injury.
Meanwhile, SRH have dominated PBKS in the IPL. Of the 24 Punjab vs Sunrisers clashes, SRH won 17 and lost only 7.
PBKS vs SRH head-to-head stats:
- Matches: 24
- PBKS won: 7
- SRH Won: 17
- No result: 0
PBKS vs SRH Toss Result Today IPL 2026 & Its Impact On The Match, Playing XI And Impact Subs:
Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to bowl first. The PBKS skipper reasoned that both of his team’s wins came when chasing, hence his decision to field first.
Punjab are going with an unchanged team, whereas Ishan Kishan announced two changes in SRH’s side: Salil Arora and Praful Hinge replace Liam Livingstone and Jaydev Unadkat. Praful is a medium pacer from Nagpur, and he makes his IPL debut.
The impact of the toss on the match is that Punjab are now in the driver’s seat: as Iyer pointed out, PBKS have chased impeccably, and SRH’s ordinary bowling attack is unlikely to pose much of a challenge while defending.
PBKS Playing XI:
Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Priyansh Arya, Shashank Singh, Cooper Connolly, Shreyas Iyer (c), Xavier Bartlett, Marcus Stoinis, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Marco Jansen, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal
Impact Subs: Nehal Wadhera, Vishnu Vinod, Suryansh Hedge, Yash Thakur, Harpreet Brar
SRH Playing XI:
Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk, c), Salil Arora, Travis Head, Shivang Kumar, Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Eshan Malinga
Impact subs: Jaydev Unadkat, Praful Hinge, Kamindu Mendis, Liam Livingstone, Shivam Mavi
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