New Delhi, May 2: Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Kane Williamson won the toss and elected to bowl first against Rajasthan Royals in Match 28 of IPL 2021 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Sunday (May 2).
Both RR and SRH head into the match on the back of identical seven wicket defeats and occupy the botton two places in the points table. So, both teams will hope to get back to winning ways.
As for team news, SRH make three changes with Afghanistan all-rounder Mohammad Nabi, Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar and young all-rounder Abdul Samad replacing former skipper David Warner, left-arm spinner Jagadeesha Suchith and pacer Siddharth Kaul from their last match.
IPL 2021: RR vs SRH, Live Updates: Kane Williamson elects to bowl first; David Warner dropped
Meanwhile RR made two changes with left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat and all-rounder Shivam Dube making way for youngsters Kartik Tyagi and Anuj Rawat, who makes his IPL debut.
After opting to bowl at the toss, Williamson said: "We are going to have a bowl. After a few conversations with guys who have played here, we think it should be a consistent surface.
On the team combination, Williamson added: "Three changes: Nabi, Bhuvi and Samad are back. Warner, Suchit and Kaul miss out on this one. We know that as a group we need to come together and build on the positive parts."
On the season so far and the goal ahead, Williamson expalined: "It has been difficult, but we need to pull together now. This captaincy change is very sudden, so I just need to pick up and make the small adjustments which hopefully will reflect on the result.
"The goal for the last half of the campaign is to improve our performances. There are many areas we need to improve, wickets in the powerplay are one. We have to do our best with our resources and it's important we adjust to the conditions," Williamson added.
After being put into bat, RR skipper Sanju Samson said:" The last match we played here was a noon game as well and it's good to set a strong total. You ony look for a good start in the powerplay and build up from there."
On the team changes, Samson added: "Two changes: Unadkat is resting and Tyagi comes in. Anuj Rawat is making his debut in place of Shivam Dube. We just want to keep it simple and express ourselves, see the ball and react accordingly."
Playing 11s for RR vs SRH
Rajasthan Royals (RR) XI: Sanju Samson (captain/wicketkeeper), Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anuj Rawat, David Miller, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Chris Morris, Kartik Tyagi, Chetan Sakariya, Mustafizur Rahman
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) XI: Kane Williamson (captain), Jonny Bairstow(wicketkeeper), Manish Pandey, Abdul Samad, Mohammad Nabi, Kedar Jadhav, Vijay Shankar, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed, Bhuvneshwar Kumar