Chennai Super Kings will see one of their star performers over the years in the opposition camp when they travel to Mohali to play Kings XI Punjab on Sunday.

Kings XI are being led by spinner Ravi Ashwin, who had earlier expressed his disappointment at not being signed up by his city’s franchise.

Chennai enter the match high on confidence, having won their opening encounter by one wicket against Mumbai Indians followed by victory over Kolkata Knight Riders by five wickets chasing 203.

TALKING POINTS

Injuries are piling up for Chennai Super Kings. Suresh Raina (calf injury) and Kedar Jadhav (hamstring) have been benched and that has put their middle order under pressure. Sam Billings was the star during their chase of 203 against Kolkata but dwindling batting resources will start to take its toll.

Punjab will be relying on their spin twins – Ashwin and Afghanistan’s Mujeeb Ur Rahman – to keep the Chennai batsmen quiet. In the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Punjab started off with three spinners and they might be inclined to continue with that strategy in the absence of out-and-out pace bowlers.

PLAYERS IN FOCUS

Punjab opener KL Rahul has been in particularly aggressive mode in this year’s IPL. His opening two knocks – 51 off 16 and 47 off 30 – show that he wants to prove to the Indian team management that he deserves to bat up the order in limited-overs cricket.

Chennai captain MS Dhoni struggled in the high-scoring match against Kolkata. The skipper crawled to 25 from 28 balls while everyone else batted at well over a run a ball. If he fails again and Chennai lose, questions will be raised about his batting.

LIKELY LINE-UPS

Kings XI Punjab: KL Rahul (wk), Mayank Agarwal, David Miller, Yuvraj Singh, Karun Nair, Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, Ravi Ashwin (c), Andrew Tye, Mohit Sharma, Mujeeb Ur Rahman

Chennai Super Kings: Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Murali Vijay, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Sam Billings, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Deepak Chahar, Harbhajan Singh, Shardul Thakur, Imran Tahir