Hyderabad, May 2: Winning the toss at their home ground, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) chose to bat first against table-topper Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the 50th match of the Indian Premier League ( IPL) 2024 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, here on Thursday.
Speaking after his decision to bat first, SRH skipper Pat Cummins said, “The games we have won, we batted first. That's probably our strength. Looks like a good wicket and nice to come back in front of home crowd,” he said. "
He informed that SRH have brought in left-arm fast-bowling all-rounder Marco Jansen in place of right-handed batter Aiden Markram.
RR captain Sanju Samson said he would have batted first too if the toss had gone in his favour. “It does suit the team, we have done both well this season. The momentum is the key in this tournament. Lot of things have been working well. To recognise what is working well, we just want to stick with that,” he said.
RR have just three overseas players in Trent Boult, Rovman Powell and Shimron Hetmyer, with Jos Buttler expected to come into the chase as an impact player.
Squads:
Sunrisers Hyderabad XI: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Anmolpreet Singh, Heinrich Klaasen (wicketkeeper), Nitish Reddy, Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Marco Jansen, Pat Cummins (captain), Bhuvneshwar Kumar and T Natarajan
SRH Bench: Umran Malik, Mayank Markande, Aiden Markram, Sanvir Singh and Jaydev Unadkat.
Rajasthan Royals XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (captain & wicketkeeper), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Rovman Powell, Shimron Hetmyer, R Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Sharma and Yuzvendra Chahal
RR Bench: Jos Buttler, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Shubham Dubey, Navdeep Saini and Tanush Kotian.
Both sides have played nine matches so far. Rajasthan have lost just one match and have 16 points from eight wins. But Hyderabad have won five and have 10 points.
In the SRH vs RR head-to-head, the two teams have played each other 18 times in the IPL and both have been victorious on nine occasions.
If Rajasthan win, they would be nearly sure of a play-off berth, but if SRH win at their home ground, the battle for the top four spots is likely to be more intense. (With IANS support)