New Delhimissed out on the Gujarat Titans vs. Punjab Kings match on Monday, March 31, 2026, at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in New Chandigarh. GT signed West Indies star Holder for Rs 7 crore before the IPL 2026 season.
But the star all-rounder couldn't play in GT's first game of the season against the Kings because of team combinations. GT had a lot of foreign players to choose from, but Holder didn't fit in with the other four.
GT chose Rashid Khan, Glenn Phillips, and GT instead of Holder, who is not in good form. GT might miss Holder's death bowling because they don't have many options for the last four overs.
PBKS chooses to bowl after winning the toss.Shreyas Iyer, the captain of the Punjab Kings, chose to bowl first after winning the toss. Cooper Connolly, Marco Jansen, and Xavier Bartlett were the four foreign candidates that PBKS selected. "We'll start by bowling. Chasing, in my opinion, gives you a decent idea of how to approach the target. We also played a few practice games, and I believe it was easy to chase down any total that was scored. Iyer said, "I'm making that choice with that in the back of my mind," during the toss.
Iyer stated, "Honestly speaking, we had a phenomenal last season, but it's over now," in reference to the message he gave the team prior to the season. Since T20 is a format where you really think ahead of the game, the only advice I have given them is to just be themselves, go out there and express yourself to the best of your abilities, and make sure you're in the present moment rather than thinking far ahead. Therefore, you'll be in a better position the more time you give yourself."
revealed the combinations on his team as well. "When batting first" Excellent. The wicket looks pretty good, in my opinion. For the past few days, it has been cloudy, rainy intermittently, and covered. However, the wicket appeared to be a decent place to bat when we arrived today. We had a fairly successful season even last year. We held the top spot until the thirteenth game. And obviously, we lost out here at the qualifiers, which was also a close game.
"Fielding was one of the areas I thought we needed to improve. This year, it's all about adding that extra 5% to our fielding, bowling, and batting. And that will be our challenge. We have two debutants: Glenn and Ashok Sharma. In terms of our overseas players, we have Jos, Glenn, Rashid, and Rabada. (On Buttler) He's such an experienced player. The value he brings to the team as a player, not just as a batsman, is immense. And I'm pretty sure he's going to have another great year with us."