With just 2 points separating the five sides that fight for a potentially single playoff spot, SRH host KXIP knowing that a win for the either one of the sides would prove to be very crucial.
Things are getting really tight in the bottom half of the table with just 2 points separating 4th and 8th. SRH and KXIP have the advantage of having played a game less but since they lock horns against each other today, only one can walk away with the points.
SRH have so far had a topsy turvy season. After beginning the season on a high, they lost consecutive games before getting back to winning ways. But they have lost their last 2 games making the remaining ones a must win.
Despite losing Bairstow due to international commitments, the side have really coped well. Manish Pandey stepping up to the occasion comes as a boon for a side that has so far been only reliant on the openers.
KXIP arrive to a contest with a lot of problems to be addressed. Similar to SRH, the side has also been over dependent on their openers to do the bulk of the scoring. But despite that, the death bowling also makes for a worrying read.
Their bowling just doesn’t have the required experience and it has been pretty hard for Ashwin to find out the right combination. They have leaked runs in the death at will and have not picked up many wickets.
Team News:
The option of picking Goswami and slotting him at the top order is one way SRH can look to shuffle the batting order. With the likes of Chris Gayle in the opposition ranks, bringing in Mohammad Nabi wouldn’t be a bad choice. Also Siddharth Kaul could make way for Sandeep Sharma.
Expected XI: David Warner, Shreevats Goswami (wk), Kane Williamson (c), Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Shakib Al Hasan, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul/Sandeep Sharma, K Khaleel Ahmed.
Injuries to Moises Henriques and Mujeeb means that Kings XI Punjab cannot experiment much with their bowling attack. They might look to give the young Arshdeep Singh another chance after Ankit Rajpoot proved to be very expensive vs RCB.
Expected XI: Lokesh Rahul, Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, David Miller, Mandeep Singh, Nicholas Pooran(w), Ravichandran Ashwin(c), Hardus Viljoen, Ankit Rajpoot/Sam Curran/Arshdeep Singh, Murugan Ashwin Mohammed Shami.
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