It rose to the Indian Premier League party later than expected. Just when the Sunrisers Hyderabad was getting its act together, as was showcased during its successive wins, the Orange Army will have a lot to ponder over its combination ahead of the Friday night faceoff versus fancied Kolkata Knight Riders.
The Sunrisers will be forced to seek a replacement for Washington Sundar. The reliable allrounder split his webbing during the Sunrisers’ win versus Gujarat Titans earlier in the week. With Washington ruled out, it will be interesting to see how Sunrisers rejig its combination to cover the spin bowling base.
It has at its disposal the Karnataka duo of leggie Shreyas Gopal and left-arm spinner J. Suchith, both effective batters. However, if the management feels the need to strengthen the big-hitting department in the lower order, it may pave way for Abdul Samad’s return to the side.
With a key player missing, Sunrisers will be hoping for its top five batters to continue to fire and make up for the absence of Washington at the Brabourne Stadium. Rahul Tripathi will be gunning to go hard against his previous franchise.
With Tripathi having found his touch along with Abhishek Sharma, captain Kane Williamson, Nicholas Pooran and Aiden Markram, it will be a treat for the spectators when they come up against one of the most effective bowling units of the tournament.
That the well-oiled attack, with Umesh Yadav being a revelation, will be fresh after four-day break augurs well for the Kolkata franchise.
Teams (from):
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nicholos Pooran, Abdul Samad, Priyam Garg, Vishnu Vinod, Glenn Phillips, R Samarth, Shashank Singh, Washington Sundar, Romario Shepherd, Marco Jansen, J Suchith, Shreyas Gopal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sean Abbott, Kartik Tyagi, Saurabh Tiwary, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Umran Malik, T Natarajan.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Shreyas Iyer (captain), Aaron Finch, Abhijeet Tomar, Ajinkya Rahane, Baba Indrajith, Nitish Rana, Pratham Singh, Rinku Singh, Ashok Sharma, Pat Cummins, Rasikh Dar, Shivam Mavi, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Aman Khan, Andre Russell, Anukul Roy, Chamika Karunaratne, Mohammed Nabi, Ramesh Kumar, Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Sam Billings, Sheldon Jackson.
Match starts at 7.30 p.m.
