After surprise loss in their last two games against Sunrisers and Mumbai, Kings XI Punjab will look to return back into winnings ways, when they will enter Holkar Stadium in Indore on Sunday against already struggling Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier league encounter.
Rejuvenated Kings XI Punjab, under the leadership of new skipper Ravichandran Ashwin, started this year's campaign with a bang winning five of their first six games but lost momentum in their last two outings where the side failed to grab four vital points on account of which they now sit fourth in the league table with 10 points in their bag.
On the other side, Ajinkya Rahane's Rajasthan Royals initially recovered after a nine-wicket loss in their first game versus Sunrisers. The inaugural season champions then defeated RCB, Delhi and Mumbai in three of the next five games but the streak of consecutive defeats made their way hectic and they are currently sitting at the bottom of the table.
In the last game against Delhi Daredevils, Rajasthan played some exceptional brand of cricket in their chase of 151 runs but fell short by four runs in the rain hit fixture.
Punjab's run was first broken by Sunrisers' bowlers, who restricted them to 118 runs in a chase of a 132-run target. In their first game at their new home in Indore, Rohit & Co grabbed a win in the 18th over to keep their hopes alive of making into the playoffs.
Sunday's encounter against Kings XI will be a do or die situation for Royals, who are making their way back into the tournament after serving a two-year ban.
It's now time for Rahane's men to pull up their socks and look for solutions for the shortcomings in both the departments where their players have failed to leave a mark.
On the batting front, except Sanju Samson (282 runs), who played a brilliant 92-run innings against Bangalore, no other batsman has lived up to the expectations. Captain Ajinkya Rahane (225 runs) got some good start but has failed to convert them into big scores. While D'Arcy Short (109), Jos Buttler (187), despite having a fifty to their names, look unimpressive.
However, the biggest setback for Royals has been the poor form of the biggest buy of the season Ben Stokes. The star English all-rounder has failed to perform entirely and just managed to compile 148 runs from eight innings and collected only a single wicket.
While the other big buy, Jaydev Unadkat has also turned out to be a liability. He has so far managed to get only seven wickets from eight games.
However, Jofra Archer has impressed a bit with his economical bowling and has got seven wickets from three games.
On the other side, Punjab are running good on the destructive start from the opening duo of Chris Gayle and Kl Rahul, who are in the list of top ten run getters this season.
While Gayle has scored 302 runs from five innings with three fifties and a century, Rahul has managed 292 runs from eight innings.
But apart from these two, the other KXIP batsmen have disappointed with their performances. Two big names of the T20 circuit -- Yuvraj Singh (64 runs from 5 games) and Aaron Finch (24 runs from 5 games) are yet to find form.
In bowling, young Mujeeb Ur Rahman runs an economical bowling form posing threat to batsmen. While Ankit Rajpoot and Andrew Tye have managed to get wickets but Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohit Sharma and Barinder Sran still have to join the party.