Punjab Kings players were seen wearing black armbands during their Indian Premier League 2026 clash against the Delhi Capitals at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala, on Monday, May 11. PBKS were asked to bat first by DC as they look to bounce back from three consecutive losses this season.
PBKS, who were at the top of the points table for quite some time, have dropped to fourth place after their three back-to-back losses. They have returned to the HPCA stadium, which is their second home and is hosting its first match of the season. They would look to start strong here.
Why are PBKS players black arm bands?
The Kings’ players were seen donning black arm bands during the clash in respect to the passing away of their team physio Andrew Leipus’ mother, ESPNCricinfo reported. Leipus’ mother died on Sunday.
DC opt to bowl, make five changes
The Capitals have made five changes to the team that lost the previous game to the KKR. Kuldeep Yadav was among the five players to miss this game. Pathum Nissanka, Nitish Rana, Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma and Vipraj Nigam are the other players who are not part of the Playing XI despite playing the previous game.ย
Nissanka, Rizvi, Ashutosh and Vipraj are part of the impact subs list but only one of them will come into the side when DC bat second, as Vipraj will surely miss out.
PBKS make one change as Dwarshius makes his debut
Meanwhile, there is only one change for PBKS despite three losses in a row. They were forced to hand IPL debut to Ben Dwarshius, who comes in as Lockie Ferguson has a ‘slight niggle’. “(Changes?) There are five changes, so Abhishek Porel, Sahil Parakh is playing, David Miller is playing, Auqib Nabi is playing, and Madhav Tiwari is playing,” Axar said on the changes the team made.
“Honestly speaking, I’ve got no idea how the wicket has been playing so far in the IPL unless you play on it. So whatever comes, I think you’ve got to put your best foot forward and go ahead. Ben Dwarshius comes in place of Lockie Ferguson, who has a slight niggle,” Shreyas said at the toss.
ALSO READ |ย Why is Kuldeep Yadav not playing for DC in must-win IPL 2026 clash against PBKS?