IPL 2016, KXIP Vs RPS Playing 11: Today's Probable XIs for Kings XI Punjab vs Rising Pune Supergiants

Since the inception of the Rising Pune Supergiants into the VIVO IPL 2016, they have had a mixed bag of success. After beating the Mumbai Indians comprehensively by 9 wickets, they succumbed to the experienced Gujarat duo of Brendon McCullum and Aaron Finch, who smoked the Pune bowlers all around the park, without sparing a single bowler during their chase.

Kings XI Punjab on the other hand, will be recovering from the wounds sustained from tweaker Amit Mishra, who bamboozled the middle-order with severe ease, mixing him up his leg-breaks and googlies to make life difficult for the batsmen.

When Pune face Punjab for match 10 of VIVO IPL 2016, both teams will be looking to get their campaign back on track. Pune will be looking for a better performance from their middle-order and their bowlers while Punjab will be looking for strong performances from skipper David Miller and ‘Big-show’ Glenn Maxwell.

Before the match begins, we try to put ourselves in both the captain’s shoes and predict the probable XI from both teams.

Kings XI Punjab squad:

Batting:

The batting duties have been handled well by locals Vijay and Vohra. With Shaun Marsh also looking to make a mark, the trio form a good top-order. The only issue that Kings XI would like to address is the lack of form from Maxwell and skipper Miller. In the two matches played so far, Maxwell has managed only 2 runs combined with a duck against the Delhi Daredevils. Miller on the other hand got a start against GL and played a 15 run cameo, but lost the plot against DD where he fell early to the guile of Amit Mishra.

Bowling:

Apart from pacer Sandeep Sharma, all the other bowlers have gone for runs. Mitchell Johnson has not clicked and has gone for plenty while KXIP’s biggest buy in 2016, Mohit Sharma has not been effective either. Mohali being a paradise for pacers, Pardeep Sahu might be rested. If that is the case, Rishi Dhawan could get a look-in, to add depth to the batting order as well.

Rising Pune Supergiants squad:

Although Dhoni has often expressed his indignation to shuffle squads, he might just be interested to give the squad a bit of a shake-up after a lacklustre performance against Gujarat.

Batting:

Pune’s batting department wears a very settled look to it. In the first match, Ajinkya Rahane played the anchor’s role to lead Pune to a victory over MI. Against GL, Faf Du Plessis seemed to take over from Rahane, as he anchored the innings in the match after Rahane’s early dismissal.

Pietersen has been consistently getting good starts, scoring a quickfire 21* against MI and 37 against GL. Steve Smith failed in his only innings against GL, while Dhoni played a handy cameo down the order. The only factor which would worry Pune would be the performance of Mitchell Marsh with the bat, who scored less than run-a-ball against the GL.

Bowling:

With Mohali offering something for the pacers, spinner Murugan Ashwin might be left out for this contest. Ravi Ashwin has bowled decently well, while Ishant Sharma and RP Singh have picked up wickets, but have been expensive.

Rajat Bhatia is more than capable with the ball, mixing his medium pace with slower off cutters and leg-cutters, but was taken to the cleaners by the GL batsmen. Mitchell Marsh has bowled and batted pretty ordinary, and might lose his place to one of the other seaming all-rounders.

Teams (Predicted XI’s):

Kings XI Punjab:

Murali Vijay, Manan Vohra, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, David Miller (Captain), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Rishi Dhawan, Axar Patel, Mitchell Johnson, Mohit Sharma, Sandeep Sharma.

Rising Pune Supergiants:

Ajinkya Rahane, Faf Du Plessis, Kevin Pietersen, Steven Smith, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain &wk), Albie Morkel, Rajat Bhatia, Ravichandran Ashwin, Murugan Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Rudra Pratap Singh,