Marcus Stoinis has not been included in the Punjab Kings (PBKS) XI for their IPL 2025 clash against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Saturday (April 26) at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
The star all-rounder has been inconsistent with the bat, scoring 67 runs at an average of 16.75 and a strike rate of 152.27. His only notable knock came against Sunrisers Hyderabad, where he smashed 34* off 11, while hitting Mohammed Shami for four sixes on the trot.
Meanwhile, Stoinis has went wicketless in his 10.4 overs, and leaked runs at an economy of 11.53. The mediocre form with the bat and bad bowling stats might have forced PBKS to exclude him from the XI and the Impact subs as well.
PBKS skipper Shreyas Iyer won the toss and opted to bat first. He then announced two changes for the side. Glenn Maxwell replaces Marcus Stoinis and Azmatullah Omarzai coming in place of Xavier Bartlett.
Here’s what Iyer said at the toss time:
“We are batting first. Since we are playing on the same wicket they played on. Can see a few cracks, will get an idea on how its playing. It’s always been great to play in front of this crowd. Another day to come here and embrace. We have been getting brilliant starts. We are talking about a few situations, need to play to our best ability and believe in ourselves. I want the bowlers to take wickets, it changes the momentum. The more wickets we take in the powerplay, gives a chance to the other bowlers.”
PBKS Playing XI: Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Shreyas Iyer (c), Josh Inglis(wk), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Glenn Maxwell, Azmatullah Omarzai, Marco Jansen, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal
Impact Subs: Harpreet Brar, Musheer Khan, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Suryansh Shedge, Praveen Dubey
Kolkata Knight Riders: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Rovman Powell, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy
Kolkata Knight Riders: Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Anrich Nortje, Luvnith Sisodia, Anukul Roy
Fans react to Glenn Maxwell replacing Marcus Stoinis in KKR vs PBKS match
Fans expressed their reactions to Glenn Maxwell coming in place of Marcus Stoinis. Some feel Maxwell is a better option due to his impressive bowling performances and KKR having many left-handers, which will be a good match-up. Meanwhile, few opined that Stoinis is a match-winner and should have played this game.
Here are the fan reactions to PBKS dropping Stoinis:
