A week off from the Indian Premier League seems quite a luxury while other teams have been playing on tight schedules. Kings XI Punjab last played a match this season on 26th April and were on a long break ever since that last game, where they failed to chase down 133 against Sunrisers Hyderabad. They have a total of 5 wins from 7 games and are in the top four, with 1-2 games in hand over the others.
While IPL 2018 has been good for Punjab so far, it has been the opposite for Mumbai Indians. They have only managed 2 wins from their 8 games and this has been their worst start ever in the IPL. They need to win all games from here on to qualify to the playoffs and honestly, we don’t see this happening. They now take on Punjab at Indore.
Teams
Kings XI Punjab have an impressive opening partnership of KL Rahul and Chris Gayle, who have been matching each other shot for shot so far. Gayle seems more determined than I’ve ever seen him before, having hit 23 sixes in his 4 innings but it hasn’t been the usual crash boom bang Gayle, but a Gayle who is showing more respect to good deliveries. Now, what is their weakness? That middle order.
Their bowling has been brilliant however, with young Ankit Rajpoot keeping Mohit Sharma out of the side. However, Mohit may come back in, in place of Barinder Sran. In the Mumbai camp, the bowling and batting have both been good in phases but they just can’t seem to win games. There is no real weak point in the team and no real changes that I would suggest, but nothing seems to be working for them this season.
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With continuous failures in the IPL this year, I’m expecting Kieron Pollard to be kept out of the side for Ben Cutting. However, Evin Lewis may have not recovered from a wrist injury as yet. If he doesn’t get fir, Pollard will play. The Indian players Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav started the season brilliantly, but haven’t been able to kick off. I’d expect Rohit Sharma to come back to the top of the order if MI want to be more effective. Do pick Krunal Pandya and JP Duminy in your fantasy teams.
Overall
Matches between these two teams in the Indian Premier League have always been well contested with both teams winning once in IPL 2017 and the teams sharing a 10-10 head to head record in the IPL. However, KXIP have been way better on current form and I’m expecting Punjab to win and knock Mumbai out of IPL 2018!
