Follow UsTwo sides that had a forgettable IPL 2021, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals will go toe-to-toe with each other at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune on Tuesday. Both teams did a reset of sorts at the auction, and are all set to embark on a new journey with a fresh batch, albeit under the same leaders. The only two remaining sides yet to play a game in IPL 2022 so far, the SRH vs RR encounter will mark the completion of the first round of matches.
Availability of overseas players
The availability of South African players has come as a boon for both RR and SRH. All of Rassie van der Dussen (RR), Aiden Markram and Marco Jansen (SRH) will be available to feature in Tuesday’s encounter. SRH alone will be missing Sean Abbott, who is currently in Pakistan, set to represent Australia in the limited-overs series.
Ground Details
The Sunrisers vs Rajasthan encounter is all set to be the first of 15 encounters set to be played at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune. The grounds in Mumbai have thus far been high-scoring, so what does Pune have in store?
The MCA stadium in Pune has hosted 38 IPL matches to date, with the last of those coming back in 2018, four years ago. Historically, it can be said that it has been an okay-ish batting wicket. The average batting-first score at the venue in IPL has been 159, with the average winning score batting first being 168. In 76 batting innings at the venue (first and second), the 200-run mark has been passed just two times - the last of those was done by Chennai Super Kings against Delhi Capitals in 2018. Outside the IPL, the MCA stadium has hosted one T20I in the last four years, between Sri Lanka and India in 2020. And surprisingly, it was an encounter in which team India managed to post 201 batting first.
As far as which type of bowling the venue favors, both pacers and spinners will have equal opportunities. Pacers and spinners have taken 66% and 34% of the wickets respectively, but notably both have maintained an ER under 8. Spinners have conceded at just 7.3 at the venue having bowled 565.1 overs.
Team Suggestion
Captain selection
Arguably the best batter in the 2021 T20 World Cup (269 runs @ 89.66), Jos Buttler is all set to feature in the shortest format for the first time since November 2020. The excitement levels are high due to this very reason, and there’s every reason to believe that the wicket-keeper batsman will begin the season with a bang. After all, the last time Buttler faced SRH, he smashed 124 off just 64 balls to bag the Man of the Match award. There are other contenders for captaincy, such as Samson and Williamson, but it is really hard to look beyond Buttler in the T20 cricket, particularly in the very first game of the season.
Our Criclytics Player Projector predicts Buttler to score between 30-44 runs against SRH
X-factors
Trent Boult has a new franchise, and he will be keen to hit the ground running. In 2021 Boult had a ‘quiet’ season by his high standards, picking only 13 wickets in 14 games, and there is no question that he will be aiming to rediscover his 2020 form. Against a relatively inexperienced SRH batting line-up, Boult has the ammo to run through the side with the new ball.
Our Criclytics Player Projector predicts Boult to take 2-3 wickets against the Sunrisers
Sanju Samson will once again be leading RR this year, and the Kerala batter, in his first season as captain, enjoyed his best ever campaign with the bat, amassing 484 runs. The RR skipper, in particular, demolished SRH not once but twice, scoring 82 and 48. Samson loves playing against SRH, and his last 8 scores vs the franchise reads as follows: 82, 48, 36, 26, 48, 102, 40 and 49. He will, without a doubt, be the single-biggest x-factor to watch out for.
Our Criclytics Player Projector predicts Samson to score between 21-31 runs vs SRH
Kane WIlliamson has flown under the radar a bit, ahead of this season, but it is worth remembering that the SRH skipper has been consistently excellent with the bat, averaging 44 and 45 across the past two seasons. And there is a good chance that he might have the opportunity to improve on those numbers this time around, given he is slated to open. Williamson loves playing against RR too, having averaged 54 in 7 innings, and scored a fifty in the last H2H clash against the Royals.
Our Criclytics Player Projector predicts Williamson to score 32-48 runs vs RR.
Here are the top-10 picks as per Criclytics projected points
Probable XIs
RR: Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson, Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, James Neesham, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, Prasidh Krishna
SRH: Kane Williamson, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Abdul Samad, Romario Shepherd, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik, T Natarajan/Kartik Tyagi