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IPL 2016: GL vs KXIP Playing 11 – Today's Probable Playing 11 for Gujarat Lions and Kings XI Punjab

Gujarat Lions return to Rajkot to face the Kings XI Punjab at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium and their fortunes couldn’t have been much different this season. While Gujarat playing their debut IPL are at the summit of the table losing only one game from the 7 matches they have played, whereas the Kings have only managed to win a single game from the 6 they have played. 
Languishing at the bottom the table the Kings will look to get a win over Gujarat to finally kick-start their campaign and climb up the table.

Gujarat and Punjab began their campaign facing each other at Mohali in the 3rd game the season. Punjab batting first got of to a brilliant start as both Vijay and Vohra scored big and Marcus Stionis’ big hits towards the end propelled Punajb to a score of 161 at the end of their 20 overs. The target proved to be too small on batting friendly Mohali pitch, Finch’s brilliant knock of 74 and Dinesh Karthik’s unbeaten 41 helped the Lions to achieve the target of 162 in only 17.4 overs. Gujarat hasn’t looked back since then and has gone from strength to strength in this IPL topping the table with 12 points, whereas Punjab has continued to struggle and will end their struggle when they face Gujarat again.

Let’s see how the Gujarat Lions and the Kings Xi Punjab could possibly line up for their encounter with each other.

Gujarat Lions

Batsmen: The blistering form in which both Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum are is just incredible. Dwayne Smith had replaced Aaron Finch in the starting 11 and  in the 3 games he had started for Gujarat, the man from Barbados has scored 148 runs and two back to back half-centuries. McCullum too has been in great scoring form scoring 218 runs at a strike of 160. Raina too has been in great touch and led from the front as the captain of the Lions and will walk into bat at number 3. At number 4, Dinesh Karthik, one of the most consistent wicket keeper batsman in the Indian domestic cricket circuit and has among the runs for Gujarat too in the IPL. Ishan Kishan, who had featured in Gujarat’s last two outing hasn’t been able to impress much and Akshdeep Nath might replace him in the starting 11.

All-Rounders: Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo and James Faulkner are the three all rounder options that Brad Hodge is likely to field against Punjab. Bravo has been impressive with the ball and his little cameos towards the end with the bat has been very valuable for Gujarat. Ravindra Jadeja might not have been his very best with bat and ball, but a player of his talent is hard to keep out of the starting 11 and James Faulkner has been very expensive with the ball, but he scored the winning runs against the Rising Pune Supergiants in Gujarat’s last encounter and has been handy with the bat on a couple of occasions.

Bowlers: Praveen Kumar and Dhawal Kulkarni will lead the pace attack for Gujarat while both of then were very expensive against the Supergiants, in their defense every bowler was for Gujarat as a certain Steve Smith single-handedly demolished their bowling unit. Young Shivil Kaushik replaced another ‘young man’, Pravin Tambe in the starting 11. The young bowler who hasn’t yet played a first class game, had caught the eye of the scouts in the Karnataka Premier League and with an action similar to Paul Adams has been impressive in his first outing for the Gujarat Lions and is likely to start against the Kings XI Punjab.

Probable Playing XI: Dwayne Smith, Brendon McCullum, Suresh Raina (C), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Akshdeep Nath, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, James Faulkner, Praveen Kumar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Shivil Kaushik.

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