The Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) will be locking horns with Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Sunday in the second match of the second doubleheader of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Both these sides are coming off losses in their last games.
CSK hasn’t started the current season on a good note as their batsmen have struggled to score runs this season barring Faf du Plessis. However, their bowling department came back strong in their last encounter against Sunrisers Hyderabad as the pacer Deepak Chahar picked up two wickets in the Sunrisers clash.
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Meanwhile, KXIP had suffered a super-over loss in their first game, then they made a comeback by defeating RCB by 97 runs in their 2nd game before losing back-to-back matches. Openers Mayank Agarwal and Rahul himself are among the runs but the Karnataka-born cricketers but failed to score big against Mumbai Indians (MI), resulting in a hefty 48-run defeat to the Rohit Sharma’s men in their last encounter.
Dhoni’s men will try to get back their winning form against KXIP, who are also having a struggling period recently. It’ll be an exciting encounter for the viewers as both sides will be looking to reclaim the winning habit just like they started.
Kings XI Punjab (KXIP)
After a third instance of the opposition smashing their bowlers in death overs, on their death bowling, KXIP skipper had acknowledged that an extra bowling option would be nice. They might be looking for a death overs specialist and bring back Chris Jordan with Jimmy Neesham making way. The Punjab-based franchise is expected to give their middle-order another shot.
Probable XI: KL Rahul (c/wk), Mayank Agarwal, Nicholas Pooran, Glenn Maxwell, Karun Nair, Sarfaraz Khan, Chris Jordan, M Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Sheldon Cottrell, Mohammed Shami
Chennai Super Kings (KXIP)
Though a case could be made for Imran Tahir’s inclusion to add an extra edge to their bowling, it’ll further hamper their already weak batting. Given the ample backing the CSK personnel enjoys, it can be said that MS Dhoni wouldn’t;t be looking to make a lot of changes in the playing XI. His huffing and puffing wasn’t a pleasant sight for their dugout, but expect the skipper to have recovered from the exhaustion in the game where he first kept for 20 overs and then returned to bat six overs later.
Probable XI: Faf du Plessis, Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (c/wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Dwayne Bravo, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Piyush Chawla
