Former champions Sunrisers and Royals come to grips today

Additional responsibility: With captain Aiden Markram away on national duty for South Africa, Bhuvneshwar Kuma will have to lead the team as well as its bowling attack.
| Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL

Former champions Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals will look to start the fresh season of Tata IPL on a winning note when the teams clash on what looks to be a perfect batting strip at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium (Uppal) here on Sunday afternoon.

With captain Aiden Markram and Heinrich Klaasen, who are on national duty for South Africa, not available for the opener, seasoned swing merchant Bhuvneshwar Kumar will lead SRH in Sunday’s game.

Calling the shots: Kumar Sangakkara, Rajasthan Royals head coach, believes it is all about settling down to play good cricket.
| Photo Credit:
NAGARA GOPAL

Last year’s runner-up Royals bank heavily on in-form Jos Buttler and leggie Yuzvendra Chahal, winners of the Orange and Purple Caps in the last season. Royals would look to Buttler to continue his recent, impressive form and joining him at the top will be the very promising Yashasvi Jaiswal. Another equally-talented youngster Devdutt Padikkal will be followed by captain Sanju Samson. West Indian batter Shimron Hetmyer adds the extra dimension to the Royals batting with his explosive skills.

In bowling, the crafty R. Ashwin should be the one to watch in the company of pacers left-armer Trent Boult, Navdeep Saini, Sandeep Sharma and Obed McCoy.

On the other hand, SRH’s hopes hinge on the form of the batters — the big-hitting Harry Brook, Glen Phillips, experienced Mayank Agarwal, Amolpreet Singh, Abdul Samad, left-arm spinning all-rounder Abhishek Sharma and Rahul Tripathi.

The SRH bowling attack has a lot of depth and variety comprising the likes of leggie Adil Rashid, pacers Kartik Tyagi, Bhubaneswar, Umran Malik, and T. Natarajan, all capable of testing the best of batters with all-rounder Washington Sundar ready for any challenge.

Issues sorted out

Bhuvneshwar is confident that the issue of finding finishers, which hit his team badly last season, has been sorted out. “I think the middle-order is well-settled now,” he said.

On Brook, Bhuvneshwar felt that contrary to the common impression, he was very good against spinners. “It is a new season and a different challenge as we go ahead with new domestic and international players,” he said.

“The bowling unit is very experienced now. Umran is the youngest , but he is also experienced now and has played for the country. He did well in the last season as well. It is a matter of going out there and doing well,” he said.

New season, new rules

Kumara Sangakkara, Royals Director of Cricket and head coach, said they had a great last season but this season was different with new rules and new players. “It is about settling down to play a good game. Let’s see how it goes, he said.

“We discussed the rule and we got that right hopefully. But, as the league goes on, the sides will get more and more used to how well to use it,” Sangakkara said.