Its Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Rajasthan Royals on the Friday IPL blockbuster as both teams will fight to earn first points in the 2019 IPL in Hyderabad.
Both teams had their chances in their respective season openers, but lost grip on the contest and ended on the losing side. Sunrisers posted 181-3 and had pushed KKR into a corner before Andre Russell pulverised the SRH bowlers and powered his team to a win. The Royals meanwhile were cruising in their run-chase against Kings XI Punjab before they imploded – losing seven wickets for 16 runs to eventually fall short by 14 runs.
The Sunrisers will have a selection problem to address; Kane Williamson, who led them to the title and was named the captain for the entire season, becomes available for selection having recovered from a shoulder injury.
For the hosts, David Warner’s innings will play a vital role as in the previous match he made it clear that he might be away for a season but his form is intact.
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Among the bowlers, the ones to keep an eye on are Sunrisers’ Rashid Khan, who continues to bamboozle batsmen with his quick leg-spinner and googlies, and Jofra Archer, who was recently quoted as saying he considered himself to be among the world’s top three bowlers in the T20 format.
Archer’s name often comes up in the context of England’s World Cup squad, and VIVO IPL 2019 is his last opportunity to convince the England selectors to pick him for that global event.
TEAMS
Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Vijay Shankar, Yusuf Pathan, Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda, Shakib al Hasan, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul.
Rajasthan Royals:Ajinkya Rahane, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, Steve Smith, Ben Stokes, Rahul Tripathi, K Gowtham, Jofra Archer, JaydevUnadkat, Shreyas Gopal, Dhawal Kulkarni.