IPL 2022 | Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans: Ferguson vs Livingstone could be one of the hottest battles

Punjab Kings face Gujarat Titans on Friday

Gujarat Titans' lethal pace attack is all set to ask some probing questions to the dynamic Punjab Kings top-order when the two teams lock horns in an IPL match on Friday.

In terms of composition and balance, both Gujarat and Punjab are very different and that makes for an enticing contest on a Brabourne Stadium track where runs are always on offer.

Punjab in their three games have shown that the approach this year would be to go hammer and tongs during the Powerplay overs and set the tempo for the rest of the innings.

In IPL however, there are some intriguing sub-plots that make it an engaging Friday. It will be a battle between Punjab's costliest buy (apart from skipper Mayank Agarwal's retention) Liam Livingstone and New Zealand's speed merchant Lockie Ferguson.

Having literally terrorised Delhi Capitals' Mandeep Singh with his pace and steep bounce in the earlier game, expect Ferguson to unleash his thunderbolts on Livingstone, who had taken the CSK attack to cleaners in the previous game with his 32-ball-60.

Ferguson and Mohammed Shami make for the most potent new ball pair after the first two weeks. With head coach Anil Kumble they would like to devise a strategy to keep Punjab Kings under check during the Powerplay overs.