IPL 2017: Gujarat Lions vs Kings XI Punjab, Face Off

After Suresh Raina's heroics guided Gujarat Lions to victory over Kolkata Knight Riders in their last match, their morale will be high as they welcome the faltering Kings XI Punjab to their home ground. Punjab have struggled with the bat in recent games and this has resulted in three losses for the Kings going into today's afternoon match.

Gujarat have had to rely on their batting in recent games as their bowling has severely underperformed. It will be an interesting contest at Rajkot today as the flat deck offers nothing to the bowlers and is by far the best batting track in IPL 2017.

Their head to head record also reads one win apiece. Both sides need a win to stay in contention for the playoffs as another loss for either side might draw curtains on their campaign.

Extra Cover: GL vs KXIP Match Prediction: Who will win today's match between Gujarat Lions and Kings XI Punjab, IPL 2017, Match 26

Here, we statistically compare the two expected starting lineups of both the sides in order to find a favourite for this encounter. The comparison made is only based on the IPL career stats of the players with internationals matches not being taken into account.

Gujarat Lions	Kings XI Punjab	Who’s better?
Brendon McCullum	Hashim Amla	GL
Runs – 2692, Avg – 28.95, SR – 131.19	Runs – 391, Avg – 39.1, SR – 137.68
Aaron Finch	Manan Vohra	Even- Stevens
Runs – 1405, Avg – 27.55, SR – 126.46	Runs – 902, Avg – 25.77, SR – 135.23
Suresh Raina	Glenn Maxwell	GL
Runs – 4341, Avg – 34.45, SR – 139.05	Runs – 1080, Avg – 25.12, SR – 164.63
Ishan Kishan	Shaun Marsh	N/A
Runs – 96, Avg – 12, SR – 117.07	Runs – 2239, Avg – 40.71, SR – 132.25
Dinesh Karthik	Wriddhiman Saha	KXIP
Runs – 2674, Avg – 23.88, SR – 124.89	Runs – 1380, Avg – 24.64, SR – 131.18
Dwayne Smith	Marcus Stoinis	GL
Runs – 2236, Avg – 26.67, SR – 133.49 Wkts – 25, Avg – 29.52, Eco – 8.8	Runs – 156, Avg – 26, SR – 126.83 Wkts – 10, Avg – 29.2, Eco – 8.98
Ravindra Jadeja	Axar Patel	GL
Runs – 1616, Avg – 23.42, SR – 121.41 Wkts – 78, Avg – 29.73, Eco – 7.76	Runs – 467, Avg – 17.3, SR – 120.98 Wkts – 49, Avg – 27.47, Eco – 7.38
James Faulkner	Mohit Sharma	KXIP
Wkts – 54, Avg – 28.85, Eco – 8.55	Wkts – 74, Avg – 25.24, Eco – 8.07
Praveen Kumar	Sandeep Sharma	KXIP
Wkts – 88, Avg – 36.69, Eco – 7.75	Wkts – 59, Avg – 23.58, Eco – 7.81
Dhawal Kulkarni	Ishant Sharma	GL
Wkts – 74, Avg – 24.69, Eco – 8.01	Wkts – 58, Avg – 37.02, Eco – 8.14
Basil Thampi	Varun Aaron	N/A
Wkts – 2, Avg – 75.5, Eco – 8.88	Wkts – 36, Avg – 31.81, Eco – 8.76

Gujarat Lions 5-3 Kings XI Punjab

As is evident from the table, Gujarat dominate the batting whereas Punjab have better bowlers. Today will be a battle between Gujarat’s power hitters and Punjab’s economical bowlers to see who comes out on top.