Punjab Kings will be buoyed by the availability of English batter Jonny Bairstow for their IPL 2022 clash against the Gujarat Titans at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Friday (April 8). Bairstow has joined the PBKS in Mumbai last week and is out of quarantine.
Last season, Bairstow scored 248 runs in 7 matches for the Sunrisers Hyderabad at an average of 41.33 with two half-centuries. Overall, Bairstow has scored 1,038 runs in IPL at an excellent average of 41.52 in 28 matches with 1 hundred and 7 fifties at a strike-rate of 142.19.
Bairstow was picked up by Mayank Agarwal-led Punjab Kings for Rs 6.75 crore at the IPL 2022 mega auction in February. Apart from Bairstow, South African speedster Kagison Rabada is also available for the clash against GT having played a couple of games in the season so far.
[?] #SherSquad, which do you think will be our wicket-keeper for #PBKSvGT?
Let us know in the comments #SaddaPunjab #IPL2022 #PunjabKings #saaddaapjaab pic.twitter.com/sUQUR0vmBM
— Punjab Kings (@PunjabKingsIPL) April 7, 2022
Rabada has been phenomenal for Delhi Capitals in the past, picking up 25, 30 and 15 wickets in the last three seasons of the IPL. Hardik Pandya’s Gujarat Titans, on the other hand, are unbeaten in the tournament so far having won both of their opening encounters.
The Titans appear to have a settled line-up with Shubman Gill and Matthew Wade at the top of the order and the likes of skipper Hardik Pandya, David Miller and Rahul Tewatia in the middle order. GT have a dangerous pace attack led by Mohammed Shami and New Zealand pacer Lockie Ferguson.
Match Details
Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans, Match No. 16
Venue: Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai
Date & Time: April 8th at 7:30 PM IST
Live Streaming: Star Sports Network, Star Gold and Disney+Hotstar website and app
PBKS vs GT Predicted Playing XI
PBKS Predicted playing XI: Mayank Agarwal (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Liam Livingstone, Jonny Bairstow, Shahrukh Khan, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Odean Smith, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Vaibhav Arora, Arshdeep Singh.
Gujarat Titans Predicted playing XI: Shubman Gill, Matthew Wade (wk), Vijay Shankar, Hardik Pandya (c), David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Abhinav Manohar, Rashid Khan, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Aaron, Mohammed Shami
