Kings XI Punjab and Sunrisers Hyderabad will be keen to get back to winning ways when the they clash against each other in the Indian Premier League on Monday.

Both Sunrisers and Kings XI have garnered six points after three wins from five games but the Hyderabad outfit is placed second in the eight-team standings on account of a better run rate (moved to third after KKR’s win on Sunday night).

Kings XI, meanwhile, are lying fifth in the points table. But, having suffered defeats in their previous games, both Sunrisers and Kings XI would be desperate to get back to winning ways.

While Sunrisers Hyderabad lost by 40 runs against Mumbai Indians despite chasing a below-par 136, Kings XI were beaten by 22 runs by Chennai Super Kings.

Middle-order worries for SRH

Sunrisers have been threatening in their first three games when David Warner and Jonny Bairstow stitched century-plus stands but once the duo got out cheaply, the Hyderabad team’s middle-order looked in complete disarray.

Sunrisers’ middle-order has hardly been tested and when the opportunity came against Mumbai Indians, the likes of Vijay Shankar, Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda and Yusuf Pathan fell flat.

Chasing a modest 137 against Mumbai for a win, debutant Alzarri Joseph wreaked havoc to bundle out Sunrisers for 96.

On the bowling front, the pace trio of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma and Siddharth Kaul have been decent so far while the Afghan spin duo of Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi have been more than impressive in the middle overs.

Kings XI, on the other hand, lost the plot despite half-centuries from KL Rahul [55] and Sarfaraz Khan [67] while chasing 161 as they were restricted to 138 for five by CSK.

Kings XI batsmen were choked for runs by the CSK spinners and with Rashid and Nabi in Sunrisers’ rank, it is going to be another difficult outing for the home team batsmen.

Kings XI would be hoping for Chris Gayle to be back among runs at the top, while the likes of Mayank Agarwal, Mandeep Singh, David Miller need to take more responsibility in the middle overs.

While pacer Mohammed Shami has had an erratic tournament, skipper Ravichandran Ashwin has been leading Kings XI from the front in the company of Sam Curran, Murugan Ashwin and Andrew Tye.

Head to Head in IPL

Overall: Matches – 12,Kings XI Punjab – 3, Sunrisers Hyderabad – 9.

In Mohali: Matches – 5, Kings XI Punjab – 1, Sunrisers Hyderabad – 4.

Squads

Kings XI Punjab: Ravichandran Ashwin [captain], Chris Gayle, Lokesh Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Mayank Agrawal, Karun Nair, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and David Miller, Sam Curran, Varun Chakravarthy, Nicholas Pooran, Moises Henriques, Hardus Viljoen, Darshan Nalkande, Sarfaraz Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Agnivesh Ayachi, Harpreet Brar, Murugan Ashwin, Andrew Tye, Ankit Rajpoot, Mandeep Singh, Simran Singh.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson [captain], Basil Thampi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Hooda, Manish Pandey, T Natarajan, Ricky Bhui, Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul, Shreevats Goswami, Khaleel Ahmed, Yusuf Pathan, Billy Stanlake, David Warner, Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Shakib Al Hasan, Jonny Bairstow, Wriddhiman Saha, Martin Guptill, Vijay Shankar, Abhishek Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem.

[Inputs from PTI and iplt20.com]