IPL 2023: Sam Curran urges players to step up in Dhawan’s absence, says ‘younger lot will have to shape up’

Punjab Kings (PBKS) stand-in skipper Sam Curran has urged the younger generation to step up as his side faced a crunch tie against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Thursday, April 20. Shikhar Dhawan, who is not part of the PBKS squad for the RCB clash was a big miss for the home side as they try to get their fourth win of the season. On the flip side, RCB too opted to make a captaincy change as Virat Kohli took the captain’s armband while Faf du Plessis was struggling with a rib issue.

“Shikhar is getting closer, but he’ll miss out today. He’s a quality player, but the younger lot will have to shape up, Liam Livingstone is back and we have Nathan Ellis back in place of Kagiso Rabada,” Curran added.

PBKS have so far endured a mixed start to the season as they continue to the IPL 2023 campaign and have lost two matches while winning three.

The 137-run opening stand between Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis powered Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to a decent score of 174/4 against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 at Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium on Thursday.

RCB got off to a great start, racking up 137 runs without losing any wickets. However, after the 17th over, they lost two big wickets — of Virat and the dasher Glenn Maxwell — in quick succession. RCB lost momentum thereafter and weren’t able to lift the scoring rate in the tail-end of their innings. For Punjab Kings, left-armer Harpreet Singh was the pick of the bowlers, snapping up two wickets for 31 runs while pacers Arshdeep Singh and Nathan Ellis took one apiece.

However, Sam Curran and Rahul Chahal brought Punjab back into the game, bowling tight lines and lengths and not giving easy runs to RCB.

Put into bat, RCB introduced their impact player at the start in the form of regular skipper Faf du Plessis, partnering stand-in skipper Kohli. Both batters gave a solid start to their team, putting together a 50-run partnership in 5.1 overs. Virat’s 29 in 19 balls was studded with 4 fours and Faf’s 27 runs off 17 comprised two fours and two hits over the fence. Their rollicking stand took RCB to 59/0 in the powerplay.

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