Markram arrives as Sunrisers look to bounce back from opening defeat – T20 IPL 2024

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Kyle Mayers was part of Lucknow Super Giants’ squad in IPL 2022 but didn’t get a game. Had Quinton de Kock not been on national duty, Mayers wouldn’t have started this season either. But now he has two swashbuckling half-centuries in two games to give Super Giants a happy headache.

With de Kock available and having smashed a 44-ball 100 against West Indies recently, do Super Giants drop Mayers? That will be sacrilegious. If they play both, who sacrifices the opening slot? Plus, who misses out in that case – Nicholas Pooran or Marcus Stoinis? Pooran made useful contributions in both games, while Stoinis gives them an extra bowling option, even though he is yet to bowl this IPL.

After starting their campaign with a win at home, Super Giants went down to Chennai Super Kings in their next match. Now that they are back in Lucknow, can they return to winning ways?

Sunrisers Hyderabad too are coming off a defeat; they were thrashed by Rajasthan Royals in their opening game. But there are plenty of reasons for Sunrisers to put that hammering behind them, the biggest being the availability of their South African players.

For the Royals game, they were without their captain Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen and Marco Jansen. Now that the trio has joined the squad, they have all eight overseas players to pick from. And like de Kock, all three carry excellent form with them.

Team news

Both teams get reinforcements with their South African players who were part of the Netherlands series available now. Apart from Super Giants’ Mohsin Khan, there are no known injury concerns.

Toss and Impact Player strategy

Lucknow Super Giants
With de Kock a shoo-in, Stoinis may have to miss out. When it comes to Impact Player, Super Giants could start with Ayush Badoni if they are batting first. Jaydev Unadkat or Yash Thakur could replace him in the second innings. Vice versa if they are bowling first.

Probable bat-first XI: 1 KL Rahul (capt), 2 Kyle Mayers, 3 Deepak Hooda, 4 Quinton de Kock (wk), 5 Nicholas Pooran, 6 Ayush Badoni, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 K Gowtham, 9 Avesh Khan, 10 Ravi Bishnoi, 11 Mark Wood

Probable bowl-first XI: 1 KL Rahul (capt), 2 Kyle Mayers, 3 Deepak Hooda, 4 Quinton de Kock (wk), 5 Nicholas Pooran, 6 Krunal Pandya, 7 K Gowtham, 8 Avesh Khan, 9 Jaydev Unadkat/Yash Thakur, 10 Ravi Bishnoi, 11 Mark Wood

Sunrisers Hyderabad
Given Klaasen’s recent form, and that he is a regular wicketkeeper, he is set to replace Glenn Phillips in the starting XI. Jansen may have to wait for his turn, though.

Probable bat-first XI: 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Mayank Agarwal, 3 Rahul Tripathi, 4 Aiden Markram (capt), 5 Harry Brook, 6 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 6 Abdul Samad, 7 Washington Sundar, 8 Adil Rashid, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Umran Malik, 11 T Natarajan

Probable bowl-first XI: 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Mayank Agarwal, 3 Rahul Tripathi, 4 Aiden Markram (capt), 5 Harry Brook, 6 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 6 Washington Sundar, 7 Adil Rashid, 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Umran Malik, 10 T Natarajan, 11 Kartik Tyagi

Stats that matter

Pitch and conditions

Hemant Brar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

Source: ESPN Crickinfo