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As the third week of the Indian Premier League 2016 unfolds and teams begin to move up and down the points table, one would want to believe that this could perhaps be one of the most open-ended seasons in the tournament’s brief history. However, if Kings XI Punjab are to be part of the thrilling race to the playoffs to follow, they need a swift revival of fortunes.

Their opponents of Saturday’s (April 23) upcoming fixture are nearly at the opposite end of the spectrum. After a familiar underwhelming start to the campaign, Sunrisers Hyderabad have kicked on to claim two victories on the bounce and sneak into the top four.

Kings XI Punjab’s failure can largely be attributed to the dwindling form of skipper David Miller and Glenn Maxwell. The duo has managed a combined tally of just 75 runs in four outings, their non-performance bulking up the pressure on the rest of the batsmen. Even in a poor start, Manan Vohra’s form and intent, however, have been the bright spots for the Kings XI.

Among the bowlers too, the foreign recruits have been inconsistent. Recently-retired Mitchell Johnson and South African pacer Kyle Abbott have struggled to lead the way, leaving the bulk of the workload on the shoulders of the likes of Sandeep Sharma and Mohit Sharma. Even Axar Patel, who picked up 13 wickets in 14 matches last season, has had a lukewarm start this year.

On a batting-friendly wicket in Hyderabad, against one of the stingiest bowling attacks, Kings XI Punjab have their task cut out. Unless Miller and Maxwell take charge of the proceedings, the job of stopping Sunrisers from claiming their third successive win will be a tough one.

As for Sunrisers, the momentum is on their side but it remains to be seen how well they can react on the account of a failure for David Warner. The Australian opener, and the skipper of the Sunrisers, has scored three half-centuries in four outings and has carried his bat in both the wins. Against Kolkata Knight Riders, Warner’s failure resulted in a top-order collapse and an eventual sub-par target that Gautam Gambhir & Co. chased down. If Warner falls early again, it will be interesting to see how the likes of Moises Henriques, Eoin Morgan, Naman Ojha, Aditya Tare and Deepak Hooda react to the situation.

Teams:

Sunrisers Hyderabad (From): David Warner(c), Shikhar Dhawan, Moises Henriques, Eoin Morgan, Deepak Hooda, Aditya Tare, Naman Ojha(w), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Bipul Sharma, Mustafizur Rahman, Barinder Sran, Karn Sharma, Abhimanyu Mithun, Siddarth Kaul, Ben Cutting, Kane Williamson, Trent Boult, Tirumalsetti Suman, Ashish Reddy, Vijay Shankar, Ricky Bhui, Yuvraj Singh, Ashish Nehra

Kings XI Punjab (From): Murali Vijay, Manan Vohra, Shaun Marsh, David Miller(c), Glenn Maxwell, Wriddhiman Saha(w), Axar Patel, Mohit Sharma, Pardeep Sahu, Kyle Abbott, Sandeep Sharma, Swapnil Singh, Rishi Dhawan, Marcus Stoinis, Anureet Singh, Farhaan Behardien, Shardul Thakur, Nikhil Naik, Mitchell Johnson, Cariappa, Armaan Jaffer, Gurkeerat Singh Mann