A well-balanced squad at their disposal, Rajasthan Royals would look to recreate the same magic this year that saw them finish second best in IPL 2022 when they take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in their first match of their campaign on April 2, 2023. Will fight with Hyderabad.
The Sanju Samson-led Royals, with both the Purple Cap (highest wicket-taker) and the Orange Cap (highest run-scorer), with their players – Yuzvendra Chahal and Jos Buttler – performing last season Flowing out
Over the years, the Royals have built a reputation for being fierce opponents who don’t cede an inch of their territory.
With two of India’s best spinners in Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin, as well as the likes of Australian tweaker Adam Zampa, the 2008 IPL winners have perhaps the best slow bowlers in the league.
Sunrisers Hyderabad’s batting will have to take care of clever leg-spinner Chahal, who was the highest wicket-taker in IPL 2022 with 27 wickets.
Ashwin, on the other hand, will be buoyed by his performance in the recent Border-Gavaskar Test series, where he bagged 25 wickets in eight innings, albeit in a different format.
If their spin-bowling department is the envy of every other side in the IPL, then the Buttler-led Royals’ batting can complicate any franchise, the way the England legend used every bowling attack to gather wits last year. was abolished. Hit 863 runs.
With England’s top-order batsman Joe Root also a part of their squad, along with skipper Samson and pinch-hitters Shimron Hetmyer and Jason Holder, the Royals’ batting also looks almost unstoppable.
On the other hand, SRH still looks like a side that is trying to find its footing after a string of defeats in the last two editions of the IPL. While they finished eighth and last in 2021, David Warner, a season battling a captaincy crisis in IPL 2022, didn’t much change their fortunes, with new skipper Kane Williamson again eighth among the 10 teams. stay in place
This year, South African opener Aiden Markram has been given the captaincy role, although India pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar will lead the team against the Royals as the designated captain will come in on April 3 after playing a two-match ODI series against the Netherlands. .
With Mayank Agarwal failing to impress with the bat while leading Rest of India in the Irani Cup last month against Madhya Pradesh, SRH’s top-order looks shaky although they have wicketkeeper-batsman Glenn Phillips – New Zealand’s mainstay in the run up. One of the pillars for the 2021 T20 World Cup final – to provide some strength to the middle order.
SRH’s strength lies in their pace bowling line-up, which includes Umran Malik, the experienced Bhuvneshwar and South African pacer Marco Jansen, though the latter will also be unavailable for the opening match.
The Royals are no pushovers in the pace department either, which includes New Zealand pacer Trent Boult, West Indian Obed McCoy and Navdeep Saini.
Bhuvneshwar has been with SRH since its inception in 2013 and knows how the team works. Having led the side on seven occasions, he knows the home ground like the back of his hand and that knowledge could come in handy on Sunday.
Teams (from):
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Abdul Samad, Abhishek Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Anmolpreet Singh, Harry Brook, Mayank Dagar, Fazalhaq Farooqui, Aqueel Hossain, Kartik Tyagi, Heinrich Klaasen, Mayank Markande, T Natarajan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Glenn Phillips, Adil Rashid, Sanveer Singh, Rahul Tripathi, Umran Malik, Vivrant Sharma, Samarth Vyas, Washington Sundar, Upendra Yadav.
Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (captain), Abdul Basith, Murugan Ashwin, Ravichandran Ashwin, KM Asif, Trent Boult, Jos Buttler, KC Cariappa, Yuzvendra Chahal, Donovan Ferreira, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Obed McCoy, Devdutt Padikkal , Riyan Parag, Kunal Singh Rathour, Joe Root, Navdeep Saini, Sandeep Sharma, Kuldeep Sen, Akash Vashisht, Kuldeep Yadav, Adam Zampa.
The match will start at 3:30 PM IST.