Pune: Revamped Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals, who had dismal IPL last year, will look to find their feet when they lock horns in Tata IPL 2022 here on Tuesday.
After having a dismal campaign last IPL season, Hyderabad would be hoping to turn the tables around and clinch their second trophy.
The Kane Williamson-led team are blessed with the availability of all players, barring Australia fast bowler Sean Abbott, for today's match. The pacer is engaged in the white-ball series against Pakistan and will miss the first three games for the franchise.
Hyderabad in all probability will ask Abhishek and Rahul Tripathi at the top. Williamson may play at No.3, alongwith Pooran and Aiden Markram may shoulder responsibility in the middle.
Allrounders Samad and Washington Sundar, who will also handle the spin department, may follow them. Whereas Marco Jansen, T Natarajan and Umran Malik are expected to be the three fast bowlers in the lineup.
On the other hand, Rajasthan would look to turn the tables in their favour this year. Last season, they finished 7th.
Sanju Samson as a captain will be under tremendous pressure to rectify the wrongs. The team won 5 out of 14 matches under him last season.
This season, Samson has the cushion of core players with the likes of Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal. He also has the services of Devdutt Padikkal, Daryl Mitchell, Rassie Van Der Dussen, Karun Nair and Shimron Hetmyer, who are match winners on a given day.
Compared to previous years, the franchise have done their homework well by strengthening their bowling attack by drafting in Trnet Boult, Prasidh Krishna, Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal. Navdeep Saini, James Neesham and Nathan Coulter-Nile also are good horses to bet on. They will be ably supported by Obed McCoy, Kuldip Yadav and Kuldeep Sen.
The Teams:
Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Shubham Garwal, Dhruv Jurel, Kuldip Yadav, Kuldeep Sen, Tejas Baroka, Anunay Singh, KC Kariappa, Jos Buttler, Rassie Van der Dussen, Nathan Coulter Nile, Jimmy Neesham, Daryl Mitchell, Karun Nair, Obed McCoy, Navdeep Saini, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Shimron Hetmyer, Devdutt Padikkal, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson (c), Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Abdul Samad, Priyam Garg, Vishnu Vinod, Glenn Phillips, R Samarth, Shashank Singh, Washington Sundar, Romario Shepherd, Marco Jansen, J Suchith, Shreyas Gopal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sean Abbott, Kartik Tyagi, Saurabh Tiwary, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Umran Malik, T Natarajan. Match starts at 7.30 PM. (UNI)