Punjab Kings take on Delhi Capitals in another crucial fixture

Big Picture: Punjab Kings in must-win territory

The last time Punjab Kings made the playoffs was in 2014, when they were known as Kings XI Punjab. Since 2015, they have won seven group games out of 14 only twice.

This season, the Kings are still in the race for the playoffs, but they have plenty to do to make the climb up from eighth place. They can get to 16 points if they win their final two league games, but will also have to try and improve their negative net run rate. And beginning with Wednesday’s fixture against Delhi Capitals, they are moving their home base from Mohali to Dharamsala.

The rise of their young Indian talent – like Prabhsimran Singh and Jitesh Sharma – has been a success story for the Kings this season, but they haven’t got as much as they would have liked out of their more high-profile batters like Liam Livingstone. They have also fiddled around with their batting order a fair bit, and in their most recent match – which was also against the Capitals – Prabhsimran scored a century to lead them to 167 for 7, while the next highest score was Sam Curran’s 20.

On the bowling front, the Kings have taken the fewest wickets this season. Kagiso Rabada and Sam Curran haven’t been in prime wicket-taking form while Arshdeep Singh has been expensive, but Harpreet Brar, Nathan Ellis and Rahul Chahar restricted Capitals to 136 over the weekend.

The Capitals were the first team to get knocked out of the running for the playoffs, following their defeat to the Kings. After a phase when they won four out of five games, Capitals lost their two most recent fixtures and will hope to end a troubled season on a high. If they do, it could ruin the hopes of the Kings.

Form guide

Punjab Kings WLLWL (Last five completed matches, most recent first)
Delhi Capitals LLWWL

Team news

While Punjab have no known fitness issues, Delhi Capitals are still without Anrich Nortje, who had returned to South Africa for personal reasons.

Impact Player strategy

Punjab Kings

Kings started with only three overseas players in their previous game against Capitals, and brought in Australian quick Nathan Ellis for Prabhsimran Singh when bowling second. If they bowl first this time, then Prabhsimran Singh is likely to come in for the chase.

Probable XII: 1 Prabhsimran Singh, 2 Shikhar Dhawan (capt), 3 Liam Livingstone, 4 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 5 Sam Curran, 6 Harpreet Brar, 7 M Shahrukh Khan, 8 Sikandar Raza, 9 Rishi Dhawan, 10 Rahul Chahar, 11 Arshdeep Singh, 12 Nathan Ellis

Delhi Capitals

Manish Pandey had replaced Khaleel Ahmed during Capitals’ run chase against Kings in their previous fixture.

Probable XII: 1 David Warner (capt), 2 Phil Salt (wk), 3 Mitchell Marsh, 4 Rilee Rossouw, 5 Axar Patel, 6 Manish Pandey, 7 Aman Hakim Khan, 8 Praveen Dubey, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Mukesh Kumar, 11 Ishant Sharma, 12 Khaleel Ahmed

The big question

Who has been most impressive for the Kings this season?

2.8K votes

Prabhsimran Singh

Jitesh Sharma

Harpreet Brar

Stats that matter

David Warner has never been dismissed by Arshdeep, Rahul Chahar, Rishi Dhawan and Ellis, all of whom are likely to start for Kings. He’s faced a total of 99 deliveries from them.

Liam Livingstone, in contrast, has a poor record against Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Ishant Sharma. He’s been dismissed once in three deliveries by both Kuldeep and Axar, and Ishant has got him twice in 30 balls.

The last time the HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala hosted an IPL game was back in 2013. Former Pakistan allrounder Azhar Mahmood was the Player of the Match, while Rishi Dhawan, who was representing Mumbai Indians in that fixture, will be playing for Kings on Wednesday.

Pitch and conditions

In contrast to all the other venues in the IPL, the weather is expected to be cool, considering Dharamsala’s altitude of 1457 meters above sea level.

Himanshu Agrawal is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

This article was originally published by Espncricinfo.com. Read the original article here.