Eshan Malinga is all set to make his IPL debut for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) against Punjab Kings (PBKS) on Saturday, April 12 at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad. SRH captain Pat Cummins informed about the change in the playing XI at the toss after PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and opted to bat first.
Malinga replaces fellow countryman Kamindu Mendis in the playing XI, who has scored 28 runs from two matches in the season so far and has picked one wicket. The rising right-arm speedster from Sri Lanka was bought for Rs 1.20 crore by SRH at the mega-auction.
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The 24-year-old has scalped 17 wickets in his T20 career so far at an average of 22.82 and an economy of 7.70. SRH captain Pat Cummins informed about the team change at the toss and expressed confidence in his team to chase down anything. SRH are tottering on the last spot, having won just one out of five matches so far.
“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,” said Cummins at the toss.
On the other hand, Punjab are heading into the fixture without any changes, fresh from a win against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in their last game.
“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. 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,” said Iyer at the toss.
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
Impact Subs: Abhinav Manohar, Sachin Baby, Rahul Chahar, Wiaan Mulder, Jaydev Unadkat
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
Impact Subs: Suryansh Shedge, Yash Thakur, Praveen Dubey, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Harpreet Brar
 made one change to their playing XI against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Match 27 of the Indian Premier League 2025 (IPL 2025) as they handed debut cap to Eshan Malinga.){kind=link}