Delhi Capitals
Match 11 of the ongoing 13th edition of the Indian Premier League will witness a contest of two contrasting teams of the tournament. A week into the competition and Delhi Capitals are presently the table toppers with two wins in a row. Sunrisers Hyderabad, on the other hand, are still winless amid familiar woes.
Delhi Capitals opened their campaign with a Super Over win against Kings XI Punjab last week before thrashing Chennai Super Kings comprehensively to bag four points and take the top spot in the points table.
Sunrisers Hyderabad lost both their matches so far - against Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders - becoming the only team yet to open an account in the UAE.
A familiar problem has troubled SRH once again in the IPL tournament - the middle-order issue. In the first game, the team lost chasing 164 despite opener Jonny Bairstow (61) and Manish Pandey (34) putting on a gritty partnerhsip. In the second, Manish once again remained the only batsman in the middle order carrying the responsibility of rebuilding the innings after dismissals of Bairstow and David Warner, amid a struggling Wriddhiman Saha.
SRH might look to include Kane Williamson to strengthen their middle order, although for SRH it would mean that Mohammad Nabi would have to sit out making Rashid Khan the only other overseas player to find a spot in the playing XI. Williamson had missed the first two matches owing to a niggle but confirmed this week that he was fit to play in the next game.
For Delhi, it will be doubt over Ravichandran Ashwin's presence in the lineup for Tuesday. Following a freak shoulder injury kin the opener, he had missed the second game and is likely to miss the match against SRH as well.
"It is not a major injury, he bowled in the nets yesterday, he will comeback very soon. He is being monitored by physio, today again he will bowl at the nets. Maximum, he might miss one more match," Amit Mishra said in a pre-match presser.
In batting, the onus will be on seniors such as Shikhar Dhawan to lay the foundation, and he will have the talented Prithvi Shaw at the top of the order for company.
Rishabh Pant and Iyer have also looked in good nick, after rescuing the team from a spot of bother in the first game, the two pitched in with valuable runs against CSK.
Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis has proved he is handy with the willow while Shimron Hetmyer can also compliment the strong batting line up.
For Sunrisers to do well, they would need to look beyond Warner and Bairstow. The side must click as a batting unit to post its first win of the season on Tuesday.
The 2016 champions replaced the injured Mitchell Marsh with Afghanistan off-spinner Mohammad Nabi, who played a quick cameo with the bat and also bowled an economical spell later.
However, with the batting unit letting them down in both outings, Sunrisers might consider bringing in Kane Williamson, who has recovered from his injury, to provide stability to the line-up. He would be coming in place of Nabi.
Sunrisers spinners led by Rashid Khan continue to impress but the side is lacking an out and out pace bowler who can hit the deck and push the batsman back off a good length.
Australian fast bowler Billy Stanlake is an option but with only four overseas slots available, his inclusion looks unlikely.
The Squads (From):
Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (c), Jonny Bairstow, Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Shreevats Goswami, Virat Singh, Priyam Garg, Wriddhiman Saha, Abdul Samad, Vijay Shankar, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Jason Holder, Abhishek Sharma, Bavanaka Sandeep, Sanjay Yadav, Fabian Allen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, KhaleelAhmed, Sandeep Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Siddharth Kaul, Billy Stanlake, TNatarajan, Basil Thampi.
Delhi Capitals: Shreyas Iyer (c), Ravichandran Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Shimron Hetmyer, Kagiso Rabada, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Mishra, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishant Sharma, Axar Patel, Sandeep Lamichhane, Keemo Paul, Daniel Sams, Mohit Sharma, Anrich Nortje, Alex Carey (wk), Avesh Khan, Tushar Deshpande, Harshal Patel, Marcus Stoinis, Lalit Yadav.
(With PTI inputs)
