The Mumbai Indians will play the Kings XI Punjab in the 27th game of the Indian Premier League of this edition. The Mumbai Indians are currently at the top of the points table with four excellent wins out of the five games that they have played in whereas the Kings XI Punjab seem to be down in the dumps, at the other end of the spectrum with barely anything going right for them.

For starters, there are consistent rumours that the side owners will be selling their stakes away. Videocon seem to be the interested parties and they have been in talks with Ness Wadia, Preity Zinta and Mohit Burman for the same. How that will affect the team performances is not known, but one thing is for sure, and that is that it cannot have a positive bearing on the side.

Nor can the fact that Yuvraj Singh broke a curfew ruling and strayed out of the hotel, something that was reported to the IPL committee. There is a good chance that Yuvraj may be disciplined because of that, and that could add more fuel to the fire. Already, his poor form, to go along with Kumar Sangakkara's poor one is adding a lot of issues to the Punjab side, and a loss here would almost most certainly mean that the side is out of the competition.

The selection of Brett Lee seems like a foregone conclusion to me. At least that will add some firepower to the side. Who goes out remains to be seen, but it does look like Mahela Jayawardene may be getting the axe. He has not been performing too well and the Punjab side has been bowling atrociously.

For the Mumbai Indians, nothing succeeds like success, and successful they have been. Barring one game against the Bangalore team, their batting has performed extremely well and would be looking to repeat the same dose. It is Sachin Tendulkar who has been able to inspire much confidence amongst the rest of the batsmen and even the new comer into the side, Shikhar Dhawan has cemented his place in the side well.

Ryan McLaren had a good outing in the last game, and as did Harbhajan Singh, but to have three of your five bowlers going for runs does not augur well for the side. That is where Mumbai Indians will need to pull up their socks and try and get going for the match.

Tag :- Brett Lee   Kings XI Punjab   Mumbai Indians   Preity Zinta   Shikhar Dhawan   Yuvraj Singh