Placed at the bottom of the points table, Kings XI Punjab would be looking for their batsmen to deliver and bring their campaign back on track when they take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in their Indian Premier League match, in Mohali, on Monday.
While Punjab are bottom with four losses from six matches, Hyderabad are slightly ahead on net run rate despite having a similar win-loss count.
Both sides come into the match after losing their previous encounters.
For Punjab, particularly, it was a demoralising loss given that the side finished on a paltry 95 for nine after their opponents Chennai Super Kings had posted a mammoth 192. This was their second lowest 20-over score in eight IPL seasons.
Punjab's batting, considered its strength on paper, has failed miserably and against CSK they slipped further with the top half contributing a mere 49 runs to the total in a stiff chase.
The likes of Virender Sehwag, David Miller and Glenn Maxwell have not managed to live up to expectations.
Sehwag has scored 96 runs from six matches, Maxwell has 62 from five games and Miller has totalled 109 from five matches.
Maxwell, in fact, was dropped on Saturday as skipper George Bailey returned to the side but he too came a cropper in the face of pressure created by CSK bowlers, especially the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja who shared five wickets between them.
Punjab's bowlers too have been a huge letdown with pace spearhead Mitchell Johnson being the biggest flop. Against CSK, he conceded 40 runs in his four overs and failed to clinch a single wicket.
Hyderabad, on the other hand, have similar concerns to deal with. Their batting is dependent heavily on their openers -- skipper David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan and even though both have done reasonably well so far, lack of support in the middle order has hurt them badly.
The bowling was markedly better in the previous match against Mumbai Indians with both pace spearhead Dale Steyn and Trent Boult bowling good spells but a lack of an all-rounder is not helping with their balance.
Teams:
Kings XI Punjab: George Bailey (captain), Anureet Singh, Parvinder Awana, Rishi Dhawan, Yogesh Golwalkar, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Beuran Hendricks, Mitchell Johnson, Karanveer Singh, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, David Miller, Nikhil Naik, Axar Patel, Thisara Perera, Wriddhiman Saha, Sandeep Sharma, Virender Sehwag, Shivam Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Murali Vijay, Manan Vohra.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Lokesh Rahul, Naman Ojha, Kane Williamson, Dale Steyn, Moises Henriques, Eoin Morgan, Ravi Bopara, Trent Boult, Parveez Rasool, Karn Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Ashish Reddy, Ricky Bhui, Chama Milind, Praveen Kumar, Hanuma Vihari, Prasanth Padmanabhan, Siddarth Kaul. Bipul Sharma.
