Dharamsala, May 8 (UNI) Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to bat first against Delhi Capitals in Match 58 of Indian Premier League 2025 here on Thursday, backing his decision on the strength of recent form and a favourable outfield.

"We'll bat first considering the outfield. The fans are happy with my decision," Iyer said at the toss. "The way our openers started and other batters capitalised in the last game gives us a fair point to bat first. The players in form who win you matches usually take the team ahead in the tournament."

Delhi Capitals skipper Axar Patel, whose side made one change with Madhav Tiwari coming in for Vipraj Nigam, admitted he would have bowled first. "The wicket will remain the same throughout, so our batters will know how to plan the chase," Axar remarked. "Despite playing badly, we are still in this position which is good. It's a long tournament and it's important to be positive."

Teams:

Delhi Capitals Playing XI: Faf du Plessis, Abishek Porel (wk), KL Rahul, Sameer Rizvi, Axar Patel (c), Tristan Stubbs, Madhav Tiwari, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan.

Impact Subs: Ashutosh Sharma, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Mukesh Kumar, Vipraj Nigam, Tripurana Vijay.

Punjab Kings Playing XI: Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Josh Inglis (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Azmatullah Omarzai, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh.

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

UNI BDN ARN