Jason Holder missed out as Gujarat Titans lock horns against Punjab Kings in their IPL 2026 opener at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, New Chandigarh on Monday, March 31. Holder, the West Indies star, was roped in by GT ahead of the IPL 2026 for Rs 7 crore.ย
However, the star all-rounder missed out on GT’s season opener against the Kings due to team combinations. GT had lots of foreign options to choose from and could not fit Holder in those four players.ย
GT went with the out-of-form Jos Buttler, Rashid Khan, Glenn Phillips and Kagiso Rabada. GT might miss Holder’s death bowling as they have very few options for the final four overs.ย
PBKS win toss, opt to bowl
Meanwhile, Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and opted to bowl first. PBKS went with four overseas options in Cooper Connolly, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen and Xavier Bartlett. “We’re going to bowl first. I firmly believe that chasing gives you a fair idea about how to approach the target. And also, we played a couple of practice games and whatever total was scored, I think it was easily chased down. So, thinking that at the back of my mind, I’m taking that decision,” Iyer said at the toss.
On what message he shared to the team ahead of the season, Iyer said, “honestly speaking, we had a phenomenal last season, but it’s over now. We start from ball one and the only message I have given them is just be yourselves, go out there and express to the best of your abilities and see to it that you’re in the present moment, not thinking way beyond because T20 is such a format where you actually think way ahead of the game. So, the more time you give yourself, the better position you’ll be in.”
Shubman Gill also opened up on his team’s combinations. “(On batting first) Very good. I think the wicket looks pretty good. It has been under the covers for the past couple of days, rain on and off, and a bit cloudy. But when we came in today, we looked at the wicket, it looked like a pretty good wicket to bat on. Even last year as well, we had a pretty successful season. Up until the 13th match, we were at the number one position. And obviously, we lost out here at the qualifiers, which was also a close game.
“There were some areas that I felt we needed to work on, and fielding was one of them. And this year, it’s all about having that extra 5% adding up in our batting, bowling, and fielding. And that will be the challenge for us. We’ve got actually two debutants. Glenn is making a debut for us, and Ashok Sharma is also making a debut for us. And in terms of our overseas, we’ve got Jos, Glenn, Rashid, and Rabada. (On Buttler) He’s such an experienced player. The value that he brings, not just as a batsman, but as a player into the team, is immense for us. And I’m pretty sure he’s going to have another great year with us,”