Sunrisers have not put a foot wrong in this season of the Indian Premier League. They have won all of their three matches and imposed their authority on this tournament.
They look very likely to win the IPL for the second time if they continue like this. Remember, all of this is without David Warner, who in the past scored more than 35% of their runs, which makes it all the more remarkable.
They have perhaps the best bowling attack in the IPL and this can be put down to the philosophy of head coach Tom Moody which is to have 2 or 3 attacking bowlers and a solid back-up of local bowlers. The Sunrisers pride on their ability to restrict the opposition to 150 or less, and then chase down the score systematically, without much drama.
[table id=33 /]
They are a clinical team, and we expect more of the same against Kings XI Punjab. Ashwin is a very daring captain, capable of thinking on his feet. If any team can pose a decent challenge to the Sunrisers right now, it has to be one led by Ashwin, and one that has the brilliant young Afghan leg-spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman playing for them.
And of course, Kings XI have the King of World T20 Cricket, Chris Gayle. Gayle is often a hit or miss. If he plays a big innings here, all bets are off. It will be very interesting to see if Gayle does well against the Sunrisers attack, which is the best of the IPL so far.
The only change we expect to see is that Kings XI could leave out the completely out of form Aaron Finch for this game. The big Australian batsman has gone out to golden ducks in the two games he has played so far.
Kings XI should ideally be dropping the out-of-form Yuvraj Singh but he is undroppable because of his reputation and stature. Marcus Stoinis should back to the squad in place of Finch. Axar Patel may get a spot in the team as well.
Prediction: The Sunrisers have beaten Kings XI Punjab in all the 4 matches they have played them at Mohali. Kings XI look a better team this time under Ravi Ashwin, but we can’t see them beating the Sunrisers side which is playing at the top of its game.
The Teams
Kings XI Punjab: 1 KL Rahul (wk), 2 Chris Gayle, 3 Mayank Agarwal, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Aaron Finch/Marcus Stoinis, 6 Karun Nair, 7 Axar Patel/Barinder Sran, 8 R Ashwin (capt), 9 Andrew Tye, 10 Mujeeb Ur Rahman, 11 Mohit Sharma
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 1 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Deepak Hooda, 6 Yusuf Pathan, 7 Shakib Al Hasan 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar 10 Billy Stanlake, 11 Siddarth Kaul
Watch Kings XI Punjab take on Sunrisers Hyderabad tonight at 8 pm live on Star Sports!
