The Royal Challengers Bengaluru were under a new captain on Sunday as skipper Rajat Patidar was ruled out. The defending champions travelled to HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala to lock horns with the Punjab Kings in a must-win game for the Shreyas Iyer-led side on May 17.

The Bengaluru-based franchise, who were coming off two consecutive wins, aimed to extend their winning streak. On the other hand, the previous year finalists, who were once ruling the charts are now on the edge of being knocked out of the playoffs. In order to keep their contention hopes alive, they were required to win the game over RCB.

Coming back to the change at the Royal Challengers’ helm, skipper Rajat Patidar missed the game due to an injury. Per reports, the IPL 2025 winning skipper didn’t even travel to Dharamsala and in his absence, the charge of the side was taken by wicketkeeper-batter Jitesh Sharma. While there were reports that Patidar could also miss his next game, the final league-stage fixture of the side, Sharma quashed all the rumours and asserted that he could be back in action in Hyderabad.

“Rajat is doing fantastic and we should see him in Hyderabad. Every game is important, this win can change a lot for us and other teams,” the stand-in RCB skipper said.

How did the playing XIs look like for RCB and PBKS?

Here are the playing XIs for PBKS and RCB for their clash on Sunday, May 17.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (Playing XI): Jacob Bethell, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Venkatesh Iyer, Jitesh Sharma(w/c), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma

Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh(w), Cooper Connolly, Shreyas Iyer(c), Suryansh Shedge, Shashank Singh, Azmatullah Omarzai, Harpreet Brar, Lockie Ferguson, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal