IPL 2018: Each franchise's key battles for a spot in the starting XI

Kings XI Punjab

Will this Karnataka duo edge veteran Yuvraj Singh out of the starting eleven?

Mayank Agarwal vs. Karun Nair

The Kings XI Punjab splurged INR 11 crores on KL Rahul and not playing him will be a sin. They also have terrific overseas batsmen such as David Miller, Chris Gayle, Aaron Finch and Marcus Stoinis in their squad. With Andrew Tye likely to spearhead their bowling, it looks like out of flavour Chris Gayle will not make it to the starting eleven.

The Kings XI Punjab have a couple of batting slots left and three worthy options to chose from. After the auctions it seemed like Karun Nair and Yuvraj Singh would be the obvious picks. However, they are going to find it hard to ignore recently hitched Mayank Agarwal. Mayank has smashed Indian domestic records this season. He scored 723 runs across the Viraj Hazare tournament and scored 2,141 runs across all formats, the highest total by any batsman in an Indian domestic season. At INR 1 crore, he could turn out to be one of the steals of the season.

In the end, it might just come down to the two Karnataka players battling it out for a spot in the Punjab team.