Mumbai Indians and the faltering Punjab Kings are anxious to save their Indian Premier League season

When the Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Mumbai Indians (MI), the two bottom-seeded teams in the Indian Premier League, square off here on Thursday, they will be eager to turn around their struggling campaigns.

After six games each, the Punjab and Mumbai Indians are separated by only a few decimal places. Punjab’s slightly higher net run rate of -0.218 keeps them in seventh place in the IPL points standings, one position ahead of Mumbai Indians (-0.234).

Mumbai and Punjab are both coming off losses in their most recent games and have each lost four games, thus pressure to perform will be intense on both teams.

The fact that regular captain Dhawan would be away for “seven to ten days” owing to a shoulder injury has made it more difficult for Punjab to get the most out of their top order.

This season, the sole silver lining for PBKS has been the unwavering performances of its unsung Indian players, Ashutosh Sharma and Shashank Singh, who both bat lower in the order and have often had to compensate for the deficiencies at the top of the order.

Prabhsimran Singh’s form, which includes 119 runs at 19.83 in six games, is concerning. Jitesh Sharma, the Indian wicketkeeper-batter, is also in question.

Jitesh, who has only scored 106 runs at 17.66 in six games, will also be under pressure since the World Cup team is about to be selected.

For their foreign bowling tandem of Sam Curran (126 runs and 8 wickets) and Kagiso Rabada (9 wickets), PBKS will need to find additional help. Batters have found it simple to target Arshdeep Singh (9) and Harshal Patel (7), both of India.

Mumbai Indians are aware that they have enough firepower in the camp to win the game, but they also realize that constant teamwork is what’s needed.

Their three-match losing streak was broken by two victories at home against the Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, but a defeat to the Chennai Super Kings despite a century from Rohit Sharma meant that the five-time champions had to start again.

The form and function of Hardik Pandya on the side is where it all begins. The all-round player has attempted to spread the load when it comes to bowling, but his worrying economy rate of 12 is concerning. Gerald Coetzee (9) and uncapped Akash Madhwal (4) have both conceded more over ten runs per over on the same measure.

Pandya hasn’t contributed much with the bat in the second half of games or while batting first.

However, in every game he has played this season so far, Pandya has encountered unfriendly surroundings at different venues, which might be detrimental to an athlete.

Thus, the form of Rohit and Ishan Kishan becomes critical for the Mumbai Indians, for whom Suryakumar Yadav has yielded inconsistent outcomes.

Groups (from):

Shikhar Dhawan ©, Matthew Short, Prabhsimran Singh, Jitesh Sharma, Sikandar Raza, Rishi Dhawan, Liam Livingstone, Atharva Taide, Arshdeep Singh, Nathan Ellis, Sam Curran, Kagiso Rabada, Harpreet Brar, Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Bhatia, Vidwath Kaverappa, Shivam Singh, Harshal Patel, Chris Woakes, Ashutosh Sharma, Vishwanath Pratap Singh, Shashank Singh, Tanay Thyagarajan, Prince Choudhary, and Rilee Rossouw represent the Punjab Kings.

Mumbai Indians: Anshul Kamboj, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Kwena Maphaka, Mohammad Nabi, Shams Mulani, Naman Dhir, Shivalik Sharma, Romario Shepherd, Arjun Tendulkar, Nuwan Thushara, Tilak Varma, Harvik Desai, Nehal Wadhera, Luke Wood. · Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Dewald Brevis, Jasprit Bumrah, Piyush Chawla, Gerald Coetzee, Tim David, Shreyas Gopal, Ishan Kishan (wk).