New Malinga alert! Sunrisers Hyderabad bring in Malinga 2.0 to silence Shreyas Iyer's Punjab Kings

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Punjab Kings, led by Shreyas Iyer, chose to bat first after winning the toss against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. Sunrisers Hyderabad made one change, bringing in Eshan Malinga for Kamindu Mendis. Malinga, a Sri Lankan pacer known for his death-overs expertise, was acquired for Rs 1.2 crore in the IPL 2025 auction.

NEW DELHI: Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and opted to bat first against Sunrisers Hyderabad in their IPL 2025 match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Saturday.

“We are going to bat. In the last few games we have batted first, we have the ability to post good scores. We want to play some aggressive cricket, that’s our mindset at the moment. We have seen that we don’t have a fantastic record in the powerplay. We don’t have that thought at the back of our minds,” Iyer said during the toss.

Also See: PBKS vs SRH

“Every individual in our team play their brand of cricket. We got to be top notch, need to back our instincts. We have to keep repeating that again and again. Playing with the same team,” he said.

Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins said the team is in good space and is set for the challenge.

Cummins made one change to the Playing XI. He brought in Eshan Malinga in place of Kamindu Mendis.

“It’s fine. I think we can chase anything. Not an ideal start. But we are training really well. Everyone is in a good space. We have lost a few in a row, but that isn’t ideal. One change. Malinga comes in the side for Kamindu Mendis,” Cummins said.

WHO IS ISHAN MALINGA?

Eshan Malinga may not have the slingy action of his namesake Lasith Malinga, but the young Sri Lankan pacer is making a name for himself as a reliable death-overs specialist.

Picked up by Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs 1.2 crore in the IPL 2025 auction, Eshan was one of only two uncapped overseas players bought, alongside New Zealand’s Bevon Jacobs. Shortly after the auction, he earned his ODI debut for Sri Lanka and featured in the SA20 for Paarl Royals.

Eshan first caught national attention in 2019 by winning a fast-bowling contest in Sri Lanka, where he clocked 141kph. Though he doesn’t regularly hit that speed anymore, he compensates with new-ball swing and pinpoint yorkers. One such yorker floored Mohammad Haris in the Emerging Asia Cup semi-final last year. After attending trials with Rajasthan Royals, SRH snapped him up and could use him as a pace-friendly replacement for Adam Zampa in the playing XI.

Playing XIs:

Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh(w), Shreyas Iyer(c), Marcus Stoinis, Nehal Wadhera, Glenn Maxwell, Shashank Singh, Marco Jansen, Arshdeep Singh, Lockie Ferguson, Yuzvendra Chahal

Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Aniket Verma, Pat Cummins(c), Harshal Patel, Zeeshan Ansari, Mohammed Shami, Eshan Malinga

Here are the Impact substitutes for both the teams:

Punjab Kings Impact Subs: Suryansh Shedge, Yash Thakur, Praveen Dubey, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Harpreet Brar

Sunrisers Hyderabad Impact Subs: Abhinav Manohar, Sachin Baby, Rahul Chahar, Wiaan Mulder, Jaydev Unadkat

Get the latest IPL 2025 updates on Times of India, including match schedules, team squads, points table and IPL live score for CSK, MI, RCB, KKR, SRH, LSG, DC, GT, PBKS, and RR. Don’t miss the list of players in the race for IPL Orange Cap and IPL Purple cap.

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