Kings XI Punjab will head on to hunt Gujarat Lions today in IPL. Kings XI Punjab are placed at number five spot with five wins and ten points from 10 games, whereas Gujarat Lions have just three wins from 11 games with six points.
Kings XI Punjab would be thinking of winning this match and cementing their chances for a place in playoffs, for this they have to win 3 games out of their next 4 and which is very difficult as the opponents will be the top three teams. There would be an advantage for KXIP as they play in their home town. The team has been playing well now; every player is putting his efforts. Punjab would be playing without their all rounder Marcus Stoinis.
Gujarat Lions are out of the contention for playoffs and suffering badly as they have now lost 3 matches in a row. There is one more bad news as their attacking batsmen Brandon Mc Cullum is injured and has been ruled out. Now the pressure would be on in form Suresh Raina , Dinesh Karthik, Aaron Finch.
The batting has been very well as GL has posted total of 208 in their previous match but the inexperienced bowling unit has been disappointing and costed matches.
Head-to-head
Matches played – 3, Kings XI Punjab Won – 2, Gujarat Lions Won – 1.
Game Stats
- Gujarat lions have lost the matches whenever they chose to bat first in this season.
- Sandeep Sharma has an excellent record against Lions' overseas batsmen: Aaron Finch, Dwayne Smith.
- Axar Patel has been a silent performer for KXIP; the 23-year old has contributed crucial runs and has picked up key wickets.
Likely Playing XI
Kings XI Punjab: 1 Hashim Amla, 2 Martin Guptill, 3 Shaun Marsh, 4 Manan Vohra, 5 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 6 Glenn Maxwell (capt), 7 Axar Patel, 8 Mohit Sharma, 9 Varun Aaron, 10 Sandeep Sharma, 11 T Natarajan.
Gujarat Lions: 1 Dwayne Smith, 2 Ishan Kishan, 3 Suresh Raina (capt), 4 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 5 Aaron Finch, 6 Akshdeep Nath/Irfan Pathan, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 James Faulkner, 9 Pradeep Sangwan, 10 Basil Thampi, 11 Ankit Soni.