There is no doubt that Sunrisers Hyderabad and Punjab Kings have been the underachievers in the last few seasons of the IPL. As they say that ‘well begun is half job done’ and it holds a lot of value in the T20 format, where momentum is everything.
While Punjab Kings have got off to a great start, winning both of their opening matches, SRH had lost their opening game against Rajasthan Royals by a mammoth margin of 72 runs. In fact, the Orange Army just could not turn up in their opening home game of the season against Rajasthan Royals, and they will need to turn a corner.
SRH will look to win their first home game of the season when they will host PBKS at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad on Sunday.
On the other hand, PBKS has adopted an aggressive batting approach in the first two matches and it has paid dividends. Prabhsimran Singh was brilliant against RR in the previous game whereas Shikhar Dhawan was able to change gears at the right time.
Liam Livingstone’s arrival has been delayed but his addition will add more firepower to the Mohali-based franchise. Furthermore, Kagiso Rabada is expected to be part of the final XI against Orange Army.
Meanwhile, it will be crucial for SRH to come up with a better performance against in-form PBKS.
Match Prediction: Punjab Kings will enter the contest as favorites against depleted SRH.
SRH IPL 2023 SQUAD
Wicketkeepers: Glenn Phillips (NZ), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Upendra Singh Yadav, Heinrich Klaasen (SA).
Batters: Abdul Samad, Aiden Markram (SA), Rahul Tripathi, Anmolpreet Singh, Mayank Agarwal, Harry Brook (ENG).
All-rounders: Abhishek Sharma, Washington Sundar, Mayank Dagar, Sanvir Singh, Samarth Vyas, Vivrant Sharma.
Bowlers: Fazalhaq Farooqi (AFG), Marco Jansen (SA), Kartik Tyagi, Bhuveshwar Kumar, T. Natarajan, Umran Malik, Akeal Hosein (WI), Mayank Markande, Adil Rashid (ENG).
PBKS IPL 2023 SQUAD
Wicketkeepers: Prabhsimran Singh, Jitesh Sharma.
Batters: Shikhar Dhawan, Bhanuka Rajapaksa (SL), M. Shahrukh Khan, Atharva Taide, Harpreet Bhatia.
All-rounders: Raj Bawa, Rishi Dhawan, Liam Livingstone (ENG), Sam Curran (ENG), Sikandar Raza (ZIM), Shivam Singh, Mohit Rathee, Matthew Short.
Bowlers: Arshdeep Singh, Baltej Singh, Rahul Chahar, Nathan Ellis (AUS), Harpreet Brar, Kagiso Rabada (SA), Vidwath Kaverappa.
