As the ongoing Indian Premier League season approaches the midway stage, bottom-rung sides Punjab Kings and Gujarat Titans are faced with similar challenges to resurrect their turbulent campaigns when they take on each other in the evening game at Mullanpur on Sunday.

Former champions GT have slipped to eighth position in the IPL points tally after an embarrassing defeat to Delhi Capitals in Ahmedabad, where they were bowled out for 89 to suffer their fourth defeat in seven matches.

The Punjab Kings are tottering at the penultimate ninth spot following a nine-run loss to Mumbai Indians away on Thursday night. The loss against DC was their fifth in seven games, and thus the Kings have their task cut out when they take on the Titans in front of their home crowd, who had little to cheer about so far this season at the newly-inaugurated home venue.

Punjab has suffered from the absence of their batting mainstay and skipper Shikhar Dhawan in the last few games and the southpaw remains a doubtful starter for Sunday’s fixture. The former India opener has been undergoing rehabilitation since picking up a shoulder injury during the home fixture against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 9, resulting in England all-rounder Sam Curran to take over as the stand-in captain.

While Dhawan has managed 152 runs from five innings at a strike rate of 125.61, his absence has also further dented the team’s batting at the top of the order. Prabhsimran Singh and Jonny Bairstow haven’t been able to set the tone, nor the likes of Rilee Rossouw and Liam Livingstone have got the team to set the stage on fire. Sam Curran has managed to score but not at the pace that the team would have expected.

The only positive so far from the Punjab Kings camp has been the underrated stars in Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma, who both bat lower in the order and have had to make up for the shortcomings at the top on more than one occasion, including their heroics that gave MI a massive scare the other night. Wicketkeeer-batter Jitesh Sharma has only hurt his chances of being picked in the T20 World Cup squad with his below-par performances.

On the other hand, the Titans will also need to pull up their socks after the horror show with the bat against Delhi Capitals. For that, Gujarat skipper Shubman Gill should once again lead his pack on his homecoming as the Mohali lad is familiar with the conditions in Mullanpur.

Besides Gill, GT will expect the likes of Sai Sudharsan, David Miller, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia to shoulder the responsibility of putting up a formidable total against the struggling home side.

As far as their bowling is concerned, Mohit Sharma and Umesh Yadav will look to take advantage of Punjab top order’s vulnerability, while the spin duo of Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad could throw a spanner to Punjab’s hopes of getting back to winning ways.