KXIP are in the middle of the points table in the mid of the tournament and Darren Sammy’s inclusion seems to be exactly what the doctor ordered for. Their big stars like Glenn Maxwell and David Miller have not fired as they were expected to and that has made KXIP suffer. Today they take on a formidable SRH, a team that is having a good balance and is winning matches. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is in red-hot form and is also the purple cap owner currently.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s 5 for 19 eclipsed Manan Vohra’s 50-ball 95 and helped Sunrisers defend 159 at home. Sunrisers have an enviable 7-2 win record.
There are still question marks over Yuvraj Singh’s inclusion as he is suffering from a flu, which forced him out of Sunrisers’ previous match against Rising Pune Supergiant last week.
Southpaw David Warner has phenomenal numbers against Kings XI in the IPL: 617 runs in 14 innings at a strike-rate of 143.15, including fifty-plus scores in his last five innings.
Since SRH have two left-hand batsmen at the top (Warner-Dhawan), there is, perhaps, a case for Kings XI to open the bowling with an offspinner in Glenn Maxwell and attack the stumps.
The likely XIs
Kings XI Punjab: 1 Manan Vohra, 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Shaun Marsh, 4 Glenn Maxwell (capt), 5 Marcus Stoinis/Darren Sammy, 6 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 7 Axar Patel, 8 KC Cariappa, 9 Mohit Sharma, 10 Sandeep Sharma, 11 T Natarajan
Sunrisers Hyderabad 1 David Warner (capt), 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Moises Henriques, 5 Yuvraj Singh/Deepak Hooda, 6 Naman Ojha (wk), 7 Bipul Sharma, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Mohammed Siraj/Ashish Nehra, 11 Siddarth Kaul
