Having lost their last four games, Rajasthan Royals will be desperate to get their campaign back on track when they face a resurgent Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League on Sunday.
The Royals will be hoping to have the services of Ben Stokes who completes his mandatory quarantine on Saturday. His presence will lend balance to a Rajasthan side that has struggled to find the right combination in their six matches so far.
Stokes had taken compassionate leave in the middle of England’s home Test series against Pakistan in August and travelled to New Zealand to attend to his father who had been diagnosed with brain cancer.
“Stokes hasn’t had a lot of practice, he gets out of quarantine tomorrow, so we’ll see if he plays the day after tomorrow,” skipper Steve Smith had said after the match against Delhi Capitals on Friday.
IPL 2020: After a flying start, Rajasthan Royals are stuck in a rut because of their batting
SRH results in IPL 2020
| Match | Day/Date/Time | Venue | Result | Total points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SRH vs RCB | 21 Sep, Mon (1930) | Dubai | SRH lost by 10 runs | 0 |
| KKR vs SRH | 26 Sep, Sat (1930) | Abu Dhabi | SRH lost by 7 wickets | 0 |
| DC vs SRH | 29 Sep, Tue (1930) | Abu Dhabi | SRH won by 15 runs | 2 |
| CSK vs SRH | 2 Oct, Fri (1930) | Dubai | SRH won by 7 runs | 4 |
| MI vs SRH | 4 Oct, Sun (1530) | Sharjah | SRH lost by 34 runs | 4 |
| SRH vs KXIP | 8 Oct, Thu (1930) | Dubai | SRH won by 69 runs | 6 |
RR results in IPL 2020
| Match | Day/Date/Time | Venue | Result | Total points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RR vs CSK | 22 Sep, Tue (1930) | Sharjah | RR won by 16 runs | 2 |
| RR vs KXIP | 27 Sep, Sun (1930) | Sharjah | RR won by 4 wickets | 4 |
| RR vs KKR | 30 Sep, Wed (1930) | Dubai | RR lost by 37 runs | 4 |
| RCB vs RR | 3 Oct, Sat (1530) | Abu Dhabi | RR lost by 8 wickets | 4 |
| MI vs RR | 6 Oct, Tue (1930) | Abu Dhabi | RR lost by 57 runs | 4 |
| RR vs DC | 9 Oct, Fri (1930) | Sharjah | RR lost by 46 runs | 4 |
Rajasthan, having lost to Delhi Capitals by a big margin of 46 runs, will look to stage a comeback.
An aggressive bowling display coupled with some good fielding saw them restrict Delhi Capitals to 184/8. However, the batsmen struggled to get going during the chase.
The top guns – Jos Buttler, Smith and Sanju Samson – will need to live up to the expectations by contributing in a big way.
Rajasthan’s bowling is shouldered by pacer Jofra Archer and spinners Tewatia and Shreyas Gopal.
Having a slightly better season than their beleaguered opponents, Sunrisers were on their way to suffer back-to-back defeats before opener Jonny Bairstow and star spinner Rashid Khan helped them beat Kings XI Punjab by three wickets on Thursday.
For Sunrisers, Bairstow has been in decent form this season, smashing 97 off 55 balls against KXIP, and the English opener was at his explosive best against the Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore, too.
Skipper David Warner, who has scored 227 runs so far, would like to carry on with his good form after smashing 52 off 40 balls in the last match.
Despite losing senior pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar and all-rounder Mitchell Marsh to injuries, Sunrisers have shown tremendous fighting abilities with the world’s top-ranked T20 bowler Rashid and yorker specialist T Natarajan dishing out splendid performances.
Head-to-head
| Mat | SRH wins | RR wins | SRH win% | RR win% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SRH vs RR | 11 | 6 | 5 | 54.54 | 45.46 |
SRH squad
| Batsmen | Bowlers | All-rounders | Wicketkeepers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kane Williamson | Rashid Khan | Vijay Shankar | Jonny Bairstow |
| David Warner | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | Mohammad Nabi | Wriddhiman Saha |
| Manish Pandey | Khaleel Ahmed | Abhishek Sharma | Shreevats Goswami |
| Priyam Garg | Sandeep Sharma | Abdul Samad | |
| Virat Singh | Siddarth Kaul | Fabian Allen | |
| Billy Stanlake | Sandeep Bavanaka | ||
| T Natarajan | Sanjay Yadav | ||
| Shahbaz Nadeem | |||
| Basil Thampi |
RR squad
| Batsmen | Bowlers | All-rounders | Wicketkeepers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mahipal Lomror | Ankit Rajpoot | Shreyas Gopal | Jos Buttler |
| Manan Vohra | Mayank Markande | Ben Stokes | Robin Uthappa |
| Riyan Parag | Jofra Archer | Rahul Tewatia | Sanju Samson |
| David Miller | Varun Aaron | Shashank Singh | Anuj Rawat |
| Steve Smith | Jaydev Unadkat | Anirudha Joshi | |
| Yashasvi Jaiswal | Kartik Tyagi | ||
| Akash Singh | |||
| Andrew Tye | |||
| Oshane Thomas | |||
| Tom Curran |
Match starts at 1530 hrs IST and will be broadcast on Star Sports network and Disney+ Hotstar.
With PTI inputs