Toss Sunrisers Hyderabad opt to bowl v Rajasthan Royals
Kane Williamson, the Sunrisers Hyderabad captain, continued the season’s early trend of captains electing to chase, on his IPL captaincy debut in front of their home fans at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
Teams have tended to bat first, mostly, because no 150-plus target has been chased down in the last three IPL seasons in Hyderabad. Sunrisers preferred an overseas fast bowler in Billy Stanlake in place of England batsman Alex Hales, while Rashid Khan and Shakib Al Hasan made up for their overseas complement along with Williamson.
Williamson aside, Sunrisers have a solid Indian batting line-up in Shikhar Dhawan, Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda and Yusuf Pathan.
Ajinkya Rahane, the Rajasthan Royals captain, announced the inclusion of England’s Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes, their costliest acquisition at INR 12.5 crores (US$ 1.92 million), D’Arcy Short, BBL 2017’s highest run-getter, and Ben Laughlin.
Royals preferred to play two spin bowling allrounders in K Gowtham and Shreyas Gopal, thereby leaving out Stuart Binny. They also listed Rahul Tripathi, a revelation as an opener for Rising Pune Supergiant last season, in the middle order ,with Short likely to open with Rahane.
Both sides were without their designated captains – David Warner and Steven Smith – who were barred from this season because of the ball=tampering scandal in South Africa.
Sunrisers Hyderabad Shikhar Dhawan, Kane Williamson (capt), Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Billy Stanlake, Siddarth Kaul
Rajasthan Royals Ajinkya Rahane (capt), D’Arcy Short, Rahul Tripathi, Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (wk), Ben Laughlin, K Gowtham, Shreyas Gopal, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaydev Unadkat
Source: ESPN Crickinfo