Published: Apr 21, 2015, 05:56 PM (IST)
Edited: Apr 21, 2015, 06:02 PM (IST)
A patchy-looking Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) will lock horns with an in-form Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in a day-night encounter at the Dr YS Rajashekhar Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium at Visakhapatnam on Wednesday. David Warner’s SRH have been inconsistent and have underperformed in this edition of Indian Premier League (IPL). Now it’s high time for them to produce a positive result; but KKR won’t be an easy opponent to topple. IPL 2015 Points Table & Team Standings
With just one victory in four games, SRH are languishing at the No. 5 position at the points table. In some of their games, SRH didn’t even look competitive enough. Their squad has a lot of potential though; for a team which has names like David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan, Kane Williamson, Trent Boult, and Dale Steyn in their ranks, just two points from four games is not a fair reflection of their abilities. IPL 2015 Highest run-scorer: List of best batsmen in IPL 8
SRH have to get their combination right to get back to winning ways. Bowling has been a big issue for them in the tournament so far. So the think-tank needs to find out a way to bolster the attack. Perhaps they could even play both Steyn and Boult together. In that case SRH would have to drop either Bopara or Williamson. But will they take this gamble? Another change which SRH could look at is including Parvez Rasool in place of the misfiring Karn Sharma. IPL 2015 Highest wicket-taker: List of best bowlers in IPL 8
It’s time for seniors like Dhawan and Warner to shoulder more responsibilities with the bat and look to bat for more overs, rather than hitting out. IPL 2015 most dismissals by wicketkeeper: List of best wicketkeeper in IPL 8
For KKR it has been smooth sailing so far. Three victories in first four games is not a bad beginning for a team that is known to be slow starters. After the last-over loss against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Gautam Gambhir’s boys bounced back well with back-to-back victories against Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Daredevils. IPL 2015 Most 6s and 4s: List of most dangerous batsmen in IPL 8
The most heartening thing for KKR is their main weapon, Sunil Narine, seems to be back in business with a modified action. This will give the KKR management huge relief. Piyush Chawla is backing him up well, while the combination of Umesh Yadav and Morne Morkel is also working for them. IPL 2015 schedule: IPL 8 match time table with venue details
In the batting department, Gambhir is scoring important runs at the top of the order. His form is crucial for the success of this team. The middle order is doing alright as well. So it is a happy camp at the moment. No changes are expected in the playing XI of KKR, as they would like to continue with their winning combination. They will start as clear favourites. But cricket is a funny game, especially the T20 format. SRH should bank on this unpredictability. Indian Premier League (IPL) 2015: Complete coverage
Squads:
Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Naman Ojha (wk), KL Rahul, Ravi Bopara, Eoin Morgan, Ashish Reddy, Karn Sharma, Trent Boult, Praveen Kumar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kane Williamson, Ishant Sharma, Siddharth Kaul, Ricky Bhui, Parvez Rasool, Chama Milind, Moises Henriques, Hanuma Vihari, Prasanth Padmanabhan, Bipul Sharma.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (c), Sunil Narine, Manish Pandey, Robin Uthappa (wk), Umesh Yadav, Yusuf Pathan, Andre Russell, Ryan ten Doeschate, Shakib Al Hasan, Kuldeep Yadav, Morne Morkel, Azhar Mahmood, Johan Botha, KC Cariappa, Piyush Chawla, Pat Cummins, Aditya Garhwal, Brad Hogg, Sheldon Jackson, Sumit Narwal, Veer Pratap Singh, Vaibhav Rawal, Suryakumar Yadav.
Time: 16:00 IST | 10:30 GMT
(Sandipan Banerjee is a reporter at CricketCountry. Cricket has been the biggest passion for him since his childhood. So, when it came to choosing his career, he chose to turn his passion into his profession. Apart from cricket he likes mountain trekking, river rafting, and photography. His twitter handle is @im_sandipan)
