Unchanged PBKS bowl in IPL final; RCB without Tim David
Teams batting first have won six out of eight matches in Ahmedabad this IPL season
ESPNcricinfo staff
03-Jun-2025
Toss Punjab Kings chose to bowl against Royal Challengers Bengaluru
Punjab Kings (PBKS) have chosen to bowl first in the IPL 2025 final against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).
For the second match running, PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer disregarded Ahmedabad's record this season - the team batting first has won six of the eight matches played at the venue - but his team are fresh off defying that record, having chased down a target of 204 with an over to spare against Mumbai Indians (MI) in Qualifier 2.
Both teams named unchanged line-ups. This meant RCB finisher Tim David was not yet fully recovered from the hamstring injury that has kept him out of action since May 23, and legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal was fit enough to start for PBKS after bowling four overs in Qualifier 2 with his hand at less than 100% fitness.
It also meant RCB's XI included the England opener Phil Salt, who flew to Ahmedabad on the morning of the match after having gone home to attend the birth of his child.
PBKS's likely Impact Player is the opener Prabhsimran Singh, and RCB's is the legspinner Suyash Sharma.
The match will be played on the most central pitch at the Narendra Modi Stadium, with both square boundaries equidistant at 64m. The surface for the match is a mixed one with both red and black soil.
For the first time since 2016, the IPL final will pit two sides who have never previously won the title. RCB have lost their three previous finals - in 2009, 2011 and 2016 - while PBKS lost their only other final - in 2014.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Mayank Agarwal, 4 Rajat Patidar (capt), 5 Liam Livingstone, 6 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 7 Romario Shepherd, 8 Krunal Pandya, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Yash Dayal, 11 Josh Hazlewood
Impact Sub options: Suyash Sharma, Rasikh Dar, Manoj Bhandage, Tim Seifert, Swapnil Singh
Punjab Kings: 1 Priyansh Arya, 2 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 3 Josh Inglis (wk), 4 Nehal Wadhera, 5 Shashank Singh, 6 Marcus Stoinis, 8 Vijaykumar Vyshak, Azmatullah Omarzai, 9 Kyle Jamieson, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal
Impact Sub options: Prabhsimran Singh, Xavier Bartlett, Harpreet Brar, Suryansh Shedge, Praveen Dubey