IPL 2018, KXIP vs SRH: 5 things to watch out for

KXIP and SRH combined have five wins out six games. Both teams played their first match at home and won comfortably. The second matches in both cases went to the last over, but only SRH ended on the right side. In their away fixture, SRH registered a win away from home in Eden Gardens, whereas KXIP tasted their first loss in Bengaluru. While KXIP is back to winning ways with a thrilling win in Mohali against Dhoni's CSK, SRH remain undefeated.

In the last five years, SRH has been the dominant side in one-on-one encounters against KXIP winning 8 out of 10 games. Sunrisers have won the last six encounters against KXIP and are undefeated in Mohali winning all four fixtures there. KXIP, whose victories against SRH came way back in 2014, will look to register their first win against SRH in Mohali.

But with the change in the composition of the sides, it will interesting to see which team will have the upper hand. When two strong teams play against each other a lot can be expected from a match.

Here are the six things to watch out for::

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#6 Changes in playing XIs:

While some changes in KXIP are almost certain, SRH will have to think twice before tweaking the winning composition. Axar Patel, who was not playing in the previous match due to a niggle, will be back in the side replacing Barinder Sran. Aaron Finch might face the axe after double golden ducks giving way for Marcus Stoinis, who will come in as the third seam bowling option.

Sunrisers Hyderabad in all likeliness will retain the same playing XI. But Sandeep Sharma, with his experience of playing in Mohali, might get a chance to play against his old franchise.

SRH probable XI: Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Kane Williamson (c), Manish Pandey, Shakib Al Hasan, Deepak Hooda, Yusuf Pathan, Rashid Khan, Billy Stanlake, Siddarth Kaul, Bhuvneshwar Kumar

KXIP probable XI: Lokesh Rahul (wk), Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Yuvraj Singh, Karun Nair, Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin (c), Andrew Tye, Mohit Sharma, Mujeeb Ur Rahman

#5 Karun Nair will fancy his chances against SRH

Karun Nair has performed well with the bat in the first three matches scoring 108 runs, which also included a half-century, with a strike rate of 142.10. Even though he performed well, his performances in this year's IPL have gone unnoticed due to Rahul's swashbuckling batting at the top.

In the match against SRH, he will fancy his chances as he has a good record against the team from Hyderabad. In the 8 matches that he played against SRH, he scored 201 runs at a strike rate of 132.23. His highest score of 83 runs came against SRH when he was playing for DD in 2016. Nair will look to continuing his good form even against SRH's strong bowling lineup.

#4 Bhuvneshwar Kumar dominating KXIP again

Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the purple cap winner in last two seasons, will look to continue his pursuits with the ball. He has a very good record against Kings XI Punjab and is the fifth highest wicket-taker against them. In the 11 matches that he played against KXIP, he claimed 20 wickets with average and strike rate being 14.5 and 12.2 respectively. Bhuvneshwar Kumar's best bowling figures of 5-19 came against KXIP last year in a close encounter in Hyderabad. In that match, Bhuvi claimed his maiden IPL five-wicket haul and helped SRH win the game by 5 runs.

#3 Homecoming for three former KXIP players

Three former KXIP players are now part of the SRH squad. So coming back to Mohali will be a homecoming for them. The three players, Wriddhiman Saha, Sandeep Sharma, and Natarajan, would want to create some new memories playing against their old side.

Wriddhiman Saha is the fifth highest run-getter for KXIP. In the 49 innings that he played for them, he scored 1115 runs with a strike rate of 131.95. He is also the wicket-keeper with the maximum number of dismissals, 48, for the franchise from Punjab.

Sandeep Sharma was a vital member of the KXIP squad for the last five years. In the 56 matches that he played for them, he took 71 wickets and is next only to Piyush Chawla in the list of highest wicket-takers for KXIP. His average of 22.35 is the best for anyone bowling for Kings XI Punjab.

Natarajan played six matches for the Kings XI Punjab last season. He took just two wickets for them. He might not feature in this match due to the high competition in SRH bowling department.

#2 Shikhar Dhawan vs KL Rahul

Shikhar Dhawan is the orange cap holder after the first week (Source: BCCI)

Dhawan has been in ominous form wearing national colors and he continued the same form from limited-overs international cricket in the IPL. In Warner's absence, SRH hoped that Dhawan will lead the batting and he has done the same for them in the first two matches. In the first match, he finished the match for SRH with an unbeaten 78. In the second match, he scored a 28-ball 45, but couldn't finish the game. Dhawan had a rare failure in the third match as he scored just run-a-ball 7. He will look to set things right in the next match.

Similar to Dhawan, KL Rahul started his season with a bang. He scored the fastest IPL fifty in just 14 balls. In the first three matches, he made 135 runs and is just ahead of Dhawan in the highest run-getters list. His strike rate of 198.52 is one of the best strike rates in this year's tournament. It will be interesting to see who will stay ahead in the race for the orange cap after the match.

#1 Battle of the spinners

Both teams boast of good quality spinners. KXIP have Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel and Mujeeb Ur Rahman in their ranks. Against CSK, Mujeeb's bowling figures read 3-0-18-1 even when a target close to 200 was almost chased down. Ashwin, who recently added leg-break to his arsenal, is the pick of the bowlers with 4 wickets from 3 matches and an economy rate just above 7. Ashwin has been impressive with his captaincy in the first three matches and will look to continuing his good performances.

Rashid Khan and Shakib Al Hasan form an effective spin-duo for SRH. Sunrisers also have part-timers, Deepak Hooda and Yusuf Pathan in their playing XI. Rashid Khan has bowled 32 dot balls in his quota of 12 overs in the first three matches. Rashid's economy rate of 5.58 is best in the tournament. Even though he has just two wickets in three matches, his ability to curtail the run flow is helping other bowlers to reap wickets. Shakib, on the other hand, also had a decent outing with the ball picking up 5 wickets at an economy rate of 6.50 in three matches.

It will be interesting to see which group of spinners will have more impact on the game.