In a highly important encounter, Sunrisers Hyderabad will be locking horns against the Punjab Kings on Sunday (April 9) in Hyderabad. The Orange army have lost their first two matches, while the Kings won their first couple of encounters.
As Aiden Markram and his team take on Shikhar Dhawan's buoyant side, it is to be seen how they overcome the strong Punjab outfit. SRH's performances in the last two matches have been extremely poor. On the other hand, Punjab have impressed with their clinical display and will be aiming to win three on the trot.
SRH playing 11 vs PBKS: Mayank Agarwal, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram (C), Heinrich Klaasen, Washington Sundar, Abdul Samad, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Umran Malik, Adil Rashid
PBKS playing 11 vs SRH: Shikhar Dhawan (C), Prabhsimran Singh, Matthew Short, Jitesh Sharma, Shahrukh Khan, Sam Curran, Sikandar Raza, Nathan Ellis, Harpreet Brar, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh
Take a look at four players who can score big runs in the match on Sunday-
Rahul Tripathi (SRH): Rahul Tripathi is a pivotal part of the SRH batting unit. The batter at no. 3 holds the key as his aggressive approach is fundamental to SRH putting a big score. He scored 35 runs in the last match and must be keen to replicate the same against Punjab.
Tripathi is an accomplished player and SRH will depend a lot on him. With Mayank Agarwal struggling to score runs, his role becomes even more significant.
Prabhsimran Singh (PBKS): Prabhsimran Singh announced himself to IPL with a blistering knock against Rajasthan in the last match. The 22-year-old has a hard-hitting reputation in the domestic circuit and IPL saw the first of it.
With form and flamboyance on his side, the Punjab batter is tipped to score big again. SRH bowling has looked depleted so far this year, and the youngster can make full use of it. And the Hyderabad deck is tailor-made for batters, hence watch out for this man.
Aiden Markram (SRH): Aiden Markram's life as SRH captain had a dismal start as he lost the first game. But to make matter worse, the South African got a golden duck as well. Markram has been carrying decent form and SRH need the full chunk of that in the coming games.
The South African all-rounder has a decent record in IPL, with 527 runs in just 19 innings. He also scores at a rate of 134 in IPL and it looks like a big score is only around the corner.
Shikhar Dhawan (PBKS): Shikhar Dhawan has benefitted with someone like Prabhsimran with him at the top. The veteran has anchored the Punjab inning perfectly in the first two matches, which has paid dividends.
He has already amassed 126 runs in two innings, and will be keen to continue his merry run when they play SRH. Dhawan, having played for SRH in the past, will be facing familiar territory and will be aiming to haunt his former employers. The southpaw also has an eye on the India selection, and that warrants consistency.