Pat Cummins won the crucial toss as Sunrisers Hyderabad elected to bat first against Rajasthan Royals in the 50th match of the Indian Premier League 2024 on Thursday. Table-toppers Rajasthan fielded the same saying eleven that thrashed LSG in the last game while SRH dropped star South African cricketer Aiden Markram from their starting eleven.
After winning the toss, Cummins confirmed Marco Jansen replacing Markram in the playing eleven. The SRH skipper didn't reveal the reason behind Markram's absence which suggests a tactical change from the management.
Anmolpreet Singh, who made his SRH debut as an impact sub in the last game, came into the starting eleven with Jaydev Unadkat and Mayank Markande drafted into the substitutes bench. Marco Jansen, a bowling all-rounder, forms a pace partnership with Pat Cummins, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and T Natarajan. Marakande is expected to come in as an impact sub to partner Shahbaz Ahmed.
For Rajasthan, star English top-order batter Jos Buttler started from the impact substitutes bench again. Samson talked about sticking with a similar playing combination that has been doing wonders for the franchise in the IPL 2024.
"We also wanted to bat looking at the conditions," Sanju Samson said. "It does suit the team, we have done both well this season. The momentum is the key to this tournament. A lot of things have been working well. To recognise what is working well, we just want to stick with that."
Sunrisers Hyderabad Playing XI: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Anmolpreet Singh, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Nitish Reddy, Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Marco Jansen, Pat Cummins (c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan.
Rajasthan Royals Playing XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Rovman Powell, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sandeep Sharma.
RR Impact Subs: Jos Buttler, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Shubham Dubey, Navdeep Saini, Tanush Kotian.
SRH Impact Subs: Umran Malik, Mayank Markande, Aiden Markram, Sanvir Singh, Jaydev Unadkat.
