The newly formed franchise have won just three of their 10 qualifying matches so far, leaving them four points adrift of fourth placed Delhi Daredevils, and at least six points behind the other teams currently occupying the vital top four positions in the table.
Even victory in each their last four fixtures of the regular season, which take them to a total of 14 points may not be enough to see them into the semi-finals.
Their opponents on Tuesday are the Sunrisers Hyderabad who inflicted a crushing defeat on the reigning Champions in Visakhapatnam , the Mumbai Indians at the weekend, beating them by 85 runs.
That stunning success was enough to see the Sunrisers end the weekend in second position in the table, with 12 points from nine games played. They are two points behind the Gujarat Lions, but have two fixtures in hand.
Having finished fourth in their first season of IPL in 2013, and sixth in each of the subsequent seasons, the Sunrisers lost their first two fixtures in 2016 to RCB and the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and it looked like the same old story for the men from Hyderabad, but they have now won six of their subsequent seven fixtures, and really look as if they have come to the IPL party at last.
Of course, David Warner sees to hold the key for the Sunrisers, his 458 runs in 2016, putting him second in the trace for the Orange Cap, behind only the amazingly prolific Virat Kohli who has accumulated 541 runs. Warner’s strike rate is however, the highest of any of the top 20 run makers in the current season at over 164.