Steve Smith has won the toss against Kings XI Punjab and elected to bowl first at Sharjah.
Rajasthan Royals have made 2 changes to their squad with Jos Buttler and Ankit Rajpoot coming in for youngster Yashasvi Jaiswal and South African batsman David Miller.
Kings XI Punjab have decided to go with the same XI that beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 97 runs which means that veteran batsman Chris Gayle remains out despite the short boundaries on offer at Sharjah.
Squads
Kings XI Punjab (Playing XI): Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul(wicketkeeper/captain), Nicholas Pooran, Glenn Maxwell, Karun Nair, Sarfaraz Khan, James Neesham, Murugan Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Shami, Sheldon Cottrell
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Jos Buttler, Steven Smith(captain), Sanju Samson(wicketkeeper), Robin Uthappa, Rahul Tewatia, Riyan Parag, Tom Curran, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Jaydev Unadkat, Ankit Rajpoot
In their last game, KXIP skipper Rahul single-handedly blew the Virat Kohli-led RCB away with his unbeaten 132. Later, the Punjab bowlers also rose to the occasion and bundled out RCB for a paltry 109, setting up a massive 97-run win.
The KXIP bowlers would certainly not take the Rajasthan batters lightly, especially looking at their decent show against CSK on Tuesday night. Though Sanju Samson and skipper Steve Smith had an outstanding time with the bat against CSK, the rest of the RR batters were unimpressive.
While young Yashasvi Jaiswal, who opened against CSK, failed to provide a solid start after being packed back early, experienced Robin Uthappa and David Miller too fell cheaply. If Jofra Archer hadn't smoked four maximums off the final over, RR would have surely not crossed the 200-run mark.
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