Why is Marcus Stoinis not playing today's PBKS vs RR IPL 2025 match? 

Punjab Kings (PBKS) all-rounder Marcus Stoinis is not a part of the playing XI for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 contest against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Sunday, May 18 at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. The Australian is yet to re-join the squad after the tournament was suspended for one week.

A significant portion of the overseas contingent across franchises are battling availability issues due to clashes with the international calendar. Since Stoinis is not a part of Australia's World Test Championship (WTC) squad, it does not apply to him. However, he will remain unavailable for the franchise's first match after the restart along with Josh Inglis, but is expected to feature in the remainder of the campaign.

PBKS bowling coach James Hopes had confirmed that Stoinis is yet to re-join the squad ahead of the RR clash in Jaipur.

"We do not have a complete squad. We hope that Marcus Stoinis and Josh Inglis join us early next week, but to be honest, I'm pretty bullish on the depth in our squad, like we have Mitchell Owens here," Hopes said during the pre-match press conference (via India Today).

PBKS skipper Shreyas Iyer won the toss, and elected to bat first in the afternoon encounter. In Stoinis' absence, fellow Australian Mitchell Owen makes his debut, while Marco Jansen and Azmatullah Omarzai are the other overseas names in the playing XI.

Marcus Stoinis was dropped by PBKS midway through IPL 2025

The veteran all-rounder, after being roped in for a hefty sum of INR 11 crore, was part of the initial playing XI for PBKS. He featured largely as the No.4 batter in the first set of matches, before being demoted to No.7.

However, he was dropped for the home clash against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) despite scoring 34 runs off 11 deliveries in the clash against the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), the match before.

The Australian returned to the playing XI after that, and even led PBKS for a brief while against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), when Shreyas Iyer was off the field due to illness. Stoinis has scored 82 runs in seven matches at a strike rate of 167.35. He has bowled only 11.4 overs in the campaign, with no wickets in return.