David Warner’s SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) will start their campaign in this year’s IPL with a game against Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the Dubai International Cricket stadium here on Monday.
While the SRH have clinched the trophy once in 2016 — besides the 2009 triumph in their earlier avatar as Deccan Chargers — the Virat Kohli-led RCB are yet to lay their hands on the coveted trophy.
For this year’s edition of the lucrative league, the Warner-led SRH have made a few changes in their squad. The ‘Orange Army’ will miss the services of ace allrounder Shakib Al Hasan, who was released by the franchise after being banned by the International Cricket Council for failing to report an approach by bookies.
With skipper Warner and Jonny Bairstow, the SRH are considered to have one of the best opening pairs and if the duo gets going, the Hyderabad franchise could pose a big threat for their opponents.
Warner is also the leading run scorer for SRH after accumulating 3,271 runs from 71 games, averaging 55.44. Bairstow, who joined SRH last year, also impressed everyone after gathering 445 runs from 10 games at a decent average of 55.62.
The pace attack will be led by Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who hasn’t played any professional game since
December 2019. The 30-year-old has 109 wickets from 86 games and is the leading wicket-taker for SRH. Bhuvneshwar, however, will need support from Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Basil Thampi and Siddarth Kaul.
If SRH want to replicate their 2016 show, a lot will depend on how their spinners perform in the low and
slow tracks in the UAE. The spin attack will be led by Afghanistan leggie Rashid Khan and will be supported by his compatriot Mohammad Nabi, who had a decent outing in he just concluded Caribbean
Premier League. Nabi picked 12 wickets from as many games with an economy rate of 5.10. Other than these two, SRH also have left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem in their ranks and the Jharkhand spinner is known to be very accurate with his line and length.
On the other hand, RCB is one of the three teams in the league who are yet to win the trophy.
Kohli-led RCB’s biggest strength has been their batting and the skipper is undoubtedly, one of the best in business when it comes to whiteball cricket. Alongside Kohli, the RCB also have one of the best explosive T20 batsmen in A.B. de Villiers. Also with the inclusion of Aaron Finch, the RCB’s top-order looks quite effective.
Youngster Devdutt Padikkal is likely to open the innings with Finch while Joshua Phillipe is the other
opening option for the RCB. Also, all-rounder Chris Morris has been a great addition to the side and will
play the role of the explosive finisher that the RCB always looked for.
The RCB franchise has acquired the services of Morris and Isuru Udana to overcome their weaknesses at ‘death’ bowling. In the middle-order, the RCB has some quality with the likes of Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube and Morris, who all have the ability to demolish any bowling attack.
Experienced South African pacer Dale Steyn will lead the charge of the pace bowling attack while Navdeep Saini, Isuru Udana, Mohammed Siraj and Umesh Yadav will look to hand equal support to
the lethal pacer. The spin bowling options include Yuzvendra Chahal, Pawan Negi, Adam Zampa and
Washington Sundar.