Punjab Kings (Playing XI):
KL Rahul(w/c), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Moises Henriques, Nicholas Pooran, Deepak Hooda, Shahrukh Khan, Fabian Allen, Murugan Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh
Punjab Kings up until now have played all their 3 games at the Wankhede in Mumbai. They registered a thrilling win over Rajasthan Royals in the opening encounter. PK posted a mammoth total (221) and scraped home by 4 runs in that game. But since then the Punjab franchise have flattered to deceive. They were completely outplayed by CSK in their second game. While they went on to lose against DC even though they were in a dominant position. PK’s problems have been confounded with their captain KL Rahul’s conservative approach. They will be hoping for him to play his natural game and set the tempo. The Chennai pitch will test PK team even more. It will be interesting to see how they counter this challenge.
Sunrisers Hyderabad on the other hand have played all their games at the Chepauk, Chennai. They are the only winless team in the tournament. They lost all 3 games from a position where they could have won the match. SRH’s infamous middle order has again proved to be their Achilles heel. They literally seem to have no answers to the batting collapses. David Warner and Jonny Bairstow have played great cameos but they haven’t helped the team win a game yet. But SRH will fancy their chances against PK as they are more familiar with the conditions than them. It will be an interesting contest.
