Chennai, May 23: IPL's best power-hitters Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma will face a very different challenge in wily spin twins Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin when Sunrisers Hyderabad take on Rajasthan Royals in a high-octane second Qualifier here on Friday. (Full Coverage|More Cricket News)
Travishek' as the duo is affectionately called by the fans have taken power-hitting to a new level. Head (533 runs at 199.62) and Abhishek (470 at 207.04) have hit 72 sixes apart from 96 boundaries✱ between them.
If that's not enough, they have a swashbuckler in Heinrich Klaasen (413 ꦗruns aℱt 180), who also has 34 maximums to his credit.
But playing on an Uppal shirtfront that resembled a national highway or at t♔he Kotla or Wankhede is completely from playing at the Chepauk where the strip will be sticky in nature.
The ball stops and stroke-makers do have a tough time when it comes to hitting thဣrough the line.
Ashwin, who has played all his cricket at this ground, knows the strip like the back of his hand and hi🍸s f🍷orm has improved towards the back-end of the tournament.
With the c💞ountry's best leg-spinner Chahal for comp༺any, Royals would be hoping that Head, Abhishek and Klaasen can be disposed off quickly to gain control of the proceedings.
As for their bowling, the onus would once again be on T Natarajan, who has been SRH's top wicket-taker this season, and playing on his home turf here, he would love to exploit the condition꧒s.
Also, the experienced duo of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Cummins have a lot t🔴o deal with as the former has been wicket-less in𒁏 his last two games.
SRH's problems lie in not havin💮g two quality spinners. Mayank Markande is mediocre at best and Shahbaz Ahmed's primary skill is willow-wielding, not bowling slow left-arm orthodox twea🦂kers.
As for RR, the side finally ended its five-game win🎃less streak, thanks to its all-round show against RCB.
In batting, the top-order displayed some positive signs, especially Yashasvi Jaiswal, and he would love to continue the form ahead of the T20 World Cup in the Americas next month.
However, ꦬskipper Sanju Samson will have to do better, given th🐓at he hasn't crossed the 20-run mark in the last three contests.
In the middle order, Dhruv Jurel will be under pressure, 𒊎hav🌱ing failed to enter the double digits in his last two outings.
T👍he side would also be relying on its Caribbean game-changers Shimron Hetmy꧒er and West Indies T20 skipper Rovman Powell for some power-hitting that they displayed against RCB.
Riyan Parag, who has displayed ඣsome serious form this ter🐻m, is also one of their bankable batters.
Squads:
SRH: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Aiden Markram, Abdul Samad, Nitish Reddy, Shahbaz Ahmed, Pat Cummins (c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, T Natarajan, Mayank Markande, Umran Malik𝕴, Anmolpreet Singh, Glenn൩ Phillips (wk), Rahul Tripathi, Washington Sundar, Upendra Yadav (wk), Jhathavedh Subramanyan, Sanvir Singh, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Marco Jansen, Akash Maharaj Singh and Mayank Agarwal.
RR: Sanju Samson (c & wk), Abid Mushtaq, Avesh Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Donovan Ferreira, Kuldeep Sen, Kunal Singh Rathore, Nandre Burger, Navdeep Saini, Ravichandran Ashwin, Riyan Parag, Sandeep Sharma, Shimron Hetmyer, Shubham Dubey, Rovman Powell, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Trent Boult, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Yuzven♓dra Chahal and Tanush Kotian.
