Over the past week, Bangalore's weather has oscillated between dry heat and rain-sprinkled evenings. The city's IPL team, too, has witnessed a change in fortunes. After twiddling thumbs and watching dark clouds wipe out its home contest against Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore travelled to Kolkata and timidly watched Knight Riders ride roughshod over it.

Having slipped from the top four in the points table, Royal Challengers would have to find a fresh path while countering Kings XI Punjab at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Wednesday. The visitor, meanwhile, has perked up after shocking Super Kings at Chennai but needs to embrace consistency if it has to move up IPL's value-chain.

Showers likely The weather forecast hints at a few spells of rain which is par for this time of the year, but more than the rumble in the skies, Royal Challengers will be wary of its inability to churn out a display in which the sum is larger than the parts. The squad's batting has so far hinged on Chris Gayle (336 runs) and A.B. de Villiers (228).

The sparkling show of the two overseas professionals has been a marked contrast to the poor yields of the rest, including Virat Kohli (147), who is still searching for the kind of form that made him roar at Hobart and Dhaka. Much like its malfunctioning lower-order, Royal Challengers' bowling, too, has remained a big worry as Zaheer Khan and skipper Daniel Vettori have found that the pressure they impose on the opponent often fizzles out in the overs bowled by the others.

The ‘four foreigner' rule has also meant that Vettori is forced to pick just one among the trio of Tillakaratne Dilshan, Muttiah Muralitharan and Andrew McDonald. With the league now in its decisive second phase, Royal Challengers has to shed the rust. Incidentally, Royal Challengers defeated Kings XI in their earlier clash at Mohali.

Kings XI has slowly warmed up despite Paul Valthaty's failure and captain Adam Gilchrist's injury that paved the way for David Hussey's temporary elevation to the hot seat. Value for money The inclusion of Azhar Mahmood has gifted experience to the bowling department and strengthened the batting too. It's a twin-bonus that augurs well for the team.

Seamer Parvinder Awana has fitted well in the scheme of things, and along with Piyush Chawla (11 wickets) has helped Hussey cope with Praveen Kumar's sudden inability to break partnerships. The fresh presence of Ryan Harris should also bolster the attack. However, the men from Mohali have a flaw that is akin to Royal Challengers' batting woes — the over-reliance on a few select batsmen. Shaun Marsh, Hussey and Mandeep Singh have accounted for 52 per cent of the runs scored by Kings XI while the others have not pulled their weight. If the situation persists, it can critically hurt the team in the coming days.