A buoyant Sunrisers Hyderabad, fresh from its impressive win over Rajasthan Royals, takes on a struggling Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Sunday night.
The Virat Kohli-led RCB should be determined to discover the winning touch at the earliest. But, to achieve that, RCB needs to raise the bar on a batsman-friendly pitch.
The RCB bowling attack, comprising the pace trio of Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini and local boy Mohd. Siraj and the spin duo of leggie Yuzvendra Chahal and offie Moeen Ali will be up against a power-packed line-up.
“What plans can you make when Warner plays like that,” asked Royals’ Rahul Tripathi after his team suffered at the hands of the brilliance of the Australian.
Warner makes a formidable combination with an equally, classy Jonny Bairstow and with captain Kane Williamson coming in at No. 3 the team has a solid top-order which is in form, too.
It has some big-hitters like Yusuf Pathan and ever-improving all-rounder Vijay Shankar to shore up the middle-order, though Manish Pandey is struggling.
But, SRH’s major area of concern may well be the bowling, with, ironically, death-overs specialist Bhuvneshwar Kumar proving to be the most expensive!
It would be interesting to see whether left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem, who was ineffective against Royals will retain his place.
On the other hand, RCB should have little worries in batting, what with Kohli always leading from the front and the dangerous A.B. de Villiers finding his wonted touch in the previous game.
All it needs is for the opening pair of Parthiv Patel and Moeen Ali to get going and the others to take the cue.
West Indian Shimron Hetmyer is badly in need of a big score and if he gets that tomorrow, it should be a huge bonus for RCB.
Teams (from):
Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda, Shakib Al Hasan, Vijay Shankar, Yusuf Pathan, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul, Kane Williamson, Martin Guptill, Ricky Bhui, Shreevats Goswami, Wriddhiman Saha, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mohammad Nabi, Abhishek Sharma, Basil Thampi, Billy Stanlake.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, Parthiv Patel, Moeen Ali, AB de Villiers, Shimron Hetmyer, Shivam Dube, Colin de Grandhomme, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Devdutt Padikkal, Himmat Singh, Milind Kumar, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Heinrich Klaasen, Pawan Negi, Washington Sundar, Akshdeep Nath, Prayas Barman, Kulwant Khejroliya, Tim Southee.
Match starts at 4pm (IST).
