Toss Sunrisers Hyderabad chose to field v Royal Challengers Bangalore
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Mustafizur Rahman, who was signed for INR 1.4 crore, was handed an opportunity at the expense of Trent Boult © AFP
David Warner called correctly as Sunrisers Hyderabad took the tried and tested route of chasing in their IPL opener against Royal Challengers Bangalore on what is generally a belter of a surface at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Mustafizur Rahman, the Bangladesh pacer, was handed a debut, while Eoin Morgan and Moises Henriques were the other foreign players fielded by Sunrisers besides Warner. “Mustafizur showed his qualities at the World T20, he’s a great asset to have,” Warner said.
Warner, who batted at No. 4 for Australia at the World Twenty20, also confirmed he would partner Shikhar Dhawan at the top of the order.
Shane Watson, the costliest buy at the auction in February at INR 9.5 crores, was slotted in to an already robust Royal Challengers batting line-up alongside Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers. “Watson is a wonderful addition to our side,” Kohli said. “He is brilliant with ball. Everyone knows his batting powers. This season we won’t have to rely on just two or three batsmen.”
Kedar Jadhav, who was signed during the transfer window from Delhi Daredevils, was slotted in as the wicketkeeper, which meant there was no place for local boy KL Rahul, who was acquired from Sunrisers. “I believe we have a good balance to tackle whatever we are doing,” Kohli said.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Virat Kohli (capt), 3 AB de Villiers, 4 Sarfaraz Khan, 5 Shane Watson, 6 Kedar Jadhav (wk), 7 Stuart Binny, 8 Parvez Rasool, 9 Adam Milne, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Harshal Patel
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 1 David Warner (capt), 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Moises Henriques, 4 Naman Ojha (wk), 5 Ashish Reddy, 6 Eoin Morgan, 7 Deepak Hooda, 8 Karn Sharma, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Mustafizur Rahman, 11 Ashish Nehra
Shashank Kishore is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo