Two teams who have endured contrasting fortunes so far in the IPL will meet when the Kings XI Punjab host Mumbai Indians at Indore on Friday.

Ravichandran Ashwin’s Kings XI will be looking to consolidate their position in the upper tier of the table after winning five of their seven matches in the tournament.

On the other, defending champions Mumbai Indians are already at the last chance saloon after having lost six of their eight games and will need to win each and every of their remaining six matches to have any hopes of clinching a place in the playoffs.

SPOTLIGHT ON KINGS XI’S MIDDLE-ORDER

While Ashwin’s men have enjoyed a fine campaign so far, the middle-order has not really been tested. The explosive starts given by Chris Gayle and KL Rahul have meant that the batsmen to follow have not really been put to the test.

When Gayle and Rahul fell early in the loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad, the likes of Aaron Finch, Karun Nair, Mayank Agarwal and Manoj Tiwary failed to deliver as Kings XI fell 13 runs short of a target of just 133 runs. This has exposed the side’s soft underbelly and will be what the Mumbai Indians will be targeting come Friday.

ROHIT’S AND POLLARD’S WOES

Mumbai Indians’ much needed eight-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings turned out to be a false dawn with Rohit Sharma’s men succumbing to a 14-run loss to Royal Challengers Bangalore in their most recent outing.

Kieron Pollard returned to the playing XI after being dropped in the win over Chennai but could only muster 13 runs with the bat. That means, the West Indies all-rounder has only registered 76 runs in six innings in the IPL this year.

His poor form is not the only worry plaguing the defending champions with the skipper himself struggling for runs. Rohit might have played a match-winning knock of 56 against Chennai but was then dismissed for a golden duck in the loss to Bangalore. Bar two knocks of 94 and 56, the Mumbai skipper has only managed to score 46 runs in the other six innings combined. His flop show along with Pollard’s has been one of the major causes for Mumbai’s poor run.

LIKELY LINE-UPS

Kings XI Punjab: Chris Gayle, KL Rahul (wk), Mayank Agarwal, Aaron Finch, Karun Nair, Manoj Tiwary, Ravichandran Ashwin (c), Andrew Tye, Barinder Sran, Ankit Rajpoot, Mujeeb ur Rahman.

Mumbai Indians: Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan (wk), JP Duminy, Rohit Sharma (c), Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Ben Cutting, Mitchell McClenaghan, Mayank Markande, Jasprit Bumrah.