After the losing their first match at the adopted home ground of Indore, Kings XI Punjab will be striving to the end the two-match losing streak against Rajasthan Royals. RR team meanwhile will want to take this match and stay ahead of the other three struggling teams. With tournament heading towards the business end, every match is important. Here is how the probable XI shape up.
Rajasthan Royals
The returning team to the IPL 2018 has been hot and cold. They just look very unsure as to how their day will be. They are the classic mid-table team which is hard to predict. They came extremely close in the last match against Delhi Daredevils.
In the rain-interrupted match, RR took a brave decision to open with Jos Buttler and the move paid off spectacularly. Short’s knock first nearly cost them the match, only to bring them back later. In the end, RR fell agonizingly short.
Rajasthan Royals dropped Shreyas Gopal and Mahipal Lomror in the last match and brought back D’Arcy Short and Shreyas Gopal. Gauging the conditions at Indore, RR is likely to continue with the playing XI.
Playing XI
Ajinkya Rahane (c), Dhawal Kulkarni, Jos Buttler (wk), Jaydev Unadkat, Ben Stokes, Sanju Samson, Krishnappa Gowtham, Rahul Tripathi, Shreyas Gopal, D Arcy Short, Jofra Archer
Kings XI Punjab
The team has surprised everyone this season and is already a firm favorite to win the trophy. They had a weak long break from the IPL only for it to result in a two-match losing streak. Playing at Indore, their new home ground, they started with a loss.
Punjab played their last match against Mumbai Indians where MI desperately sought a win. Punjab’s first innings total was short of the par score and MI chased it with an over remaining.
KXIP made three changes in the last match. They brought in Yuvraj in place of Manoj Tiwary and Axar Patel in place of Barinder Sran. Marcus Stoinis replaced Aaron Finch. Tiwary is likely to come back in and so is Barinder Sran.
Playing XI –
Chris Gayle, Yuvraj Singh/Manoj Tiwary, Ravichandran Ashwin (c), Marcus Stoinis, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Lokesh Rahul (wk), Ankit Rajpoot, Barinder Sran/Axar Patel, Andrew Tye, Mujeeb Ur Rahman
