Sunrisers Hyderabad, who are still stinging from back-to-back losses, will have a lot on their minds when they play high-flying Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League on Sunday, notably how to solve their batting weaknesses.
SRH would have hoped for a better start to the season since they placed eighth in the previous two seasons, but they ended up suffering two devastating losses to Rajasthan Royals and Lucknow Super Giants, respectively.
The main cause of their downfall, despite having several intriguing players in the lineup, was a terrible performance with the bat. Sunrisers have scored 131 and 121 in their first two matches as a result of their inability to form partnerships.
They were unable to gain any momentum since they kept losing wickets quickly. As compared to SRH’s powerplay score of 30 for 2 in the first game, they achieved a score of 43 for one against LSG before blowing it, falling to 55 for 4 in nine overs.
Even the return of their new captain Aiden Markram, who made a duck, had little effect on their outcome. Harry Brook’s ascent was attributed to his ability to play spin, however he lost against spinners in both games.
Anmolpreet Singh, SRH’s wicketkeeper, was used as the top-order opener in place of Abhishek Sharma in their most recent game, and he showed promise. Nevertheless, Mayank Agarwal and Rahul Tripathi have had patchy performances.
In reality, Abdul Samad had to make two cameo appearances for SRH to reach a respectable total in the two games. It would be interesting to see what lineup they choose to support the batting as big-hitting Heinrich Klaasen is ready to start.
Fazalhaq Farooqi, an Afghan pacer, has been the most reliable for them, although to be fair, the bowlers didn’t have enough runs to defend, something SRH will need to solve as soon as possible.
On the other side, Punjab are in great shape following two convincing victories.
Punjab put on a strong exhibition of their bowling and batting power in Guwahati, crushing Rajasthan by five runs while defeating Kolkata Knight Riders by seven runs through DLS in Mohali.
PBKS, captained by the knowledgeable and composed Shikhar Dhawan, used their better batting, spearheaded by their Indian players, to set up scores of over 190, and then they successfully defended the totals in both games with the help of Arshdeep Singh.
With two fifty-plus scores, Dhawan has taken the initiative, while Prabhsimran Singh and B. Rajapaksa have raised their hands when necessary and the top order has seemed stable.
Nathan Ellis, one of the overseas acquisitions, shone against RR in the most recent game, while fast bowling all-rounder Sam Curran, who cost the most in IPL history at Rs 18.50 crore, has so far given up a lot of runs.
On paper, PBKS has the advantage, thus SRH will have to put in extra effort to outsmart them in their own lair.
groups (from)
Mayank Dagar, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Akeal Hosein, Kartik Tyagi, Heinrich Klaasen, Mayank Markande, T Natarajan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Glenn Phillips, Adil Rashid, Sanvir Singh, Rahul Tripathi, Umran Malik, Vivrant Sharma, Samarth Vyas, Washington Sundar, and Upendra Yadav are all members of Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Punjab Kings: Shikhar Dhawan (c), Arshdeep Singh, Baltej Singh, Raj Bawa, Rahul Chahar, Sam Curran, Rishi Dhawan, Nathan Ellis, Harpreet Brar, Harpreet Singh, Vidwath Kaverappa, Liam Livingstone, Mohit Rathee, Prabhsimran Singh, Kagiso Rabada, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, M Shahrukh Khan, Jitesh Sharma, Shivam Singh, Matthew Short, Sikandar Raza, Atharva Taide.