Preview: Rajasthan Royals, SunRisers Hyderabad To Start Without Key Foreign Players
Rajasthan Royals have to win all their remaining three matches to keep themselves alive in the tournament. SunRisers Hyderabad will look to seal a playoff position.
Highlights
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English players playing in the IPL 2019 have left for their national duty
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Rajasthan Royals will miss the services of Buttler, Archer and Stokes
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SunRisers Hyderabad will have to play without Jonny Bairstow
The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 has reached a stage where foreign players have started leaving for national duties ahead of the World Cup 2019. IPL teams like Rajasthan Royals (RR) and SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH), who have relied heavily on their foreign picks till now, would be forced to try out new combinations going into the most important part of the tournament which could either make or break their campaign. RR and SRH both will, for the first time, miss the services of their star players Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow respectively when they face each other on Saturday in Sawai Man Singh Stadium, Jaipur.
Another key overseas player who will be unavailable for Steve Smith's side is all-rounder Jofra Archer, who has taken 11 wickets in as many games.
For SRH the unavailability of Jonny Bairstow, who has impressed everyone in his debut IPL season, will be a huge blow as he and David Warner have scored 1,019 runs together and have been responsible for explosive start.
In the previous encounter between the two sides, Sanju Samson scored a brilliant century and posted a comprehensive total of 198. But his knock went in vain as SRH riding on Warner and Bairstow's opening partnership and Vijay Shankar's quick-fire 35 off 15 balls at the end trumped RR by five wickets.
Winning their remaining three matches is the only way how RR can keep themselves alive in the tournament as they are seventh in the points tally, all thanks to 17-year-old Riyan Parag's brilliant innings against Kolkata Knight Riders on Thursday.
Unlike RR, the situation is not that dire for SRH as they are currently placed fourth in the IPL Points Table and have played one game less than the leaders Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kings XI Punjab who are just below them in the table.
Squads:
Rajasthan Royals: Steve Smith (capt), Ajinkya Rahane, Dhawal Kulkarni, Stuart Binny, Varun Aaron, Jaydev Unadkat, Sanju Samson (wk), Manan Vohra, Prashant Chopra, Ashton Turner, Ish Sodhi, Krishnappa Gowtham, Rahul Tripathi, Shreyas Gopal, Liam Livingstone, Shashank Singh, Mahipal Lomror, Shubham Ranjane, Oshane Thomas, Riyan Parag, Aryaman Birla, Sudhesan Midhun.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson (capt), Shakib Al Hasan, Yusuf Pathan, Martin Guptill, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, David Warner, Shreevats Goswami, Siddarth Kaul, Manish Pandey, Mohammad Nabi, Shahbaz Nadeem, Vijay Shankar, Sandeep Sharma, Ricky Bhui, Deepak Hooda, Billy Stanlake, T Natarajan, Basil Thampi, Rashid Khan, K Khaleel Ahmed, Abhishek Sharma.
Rajasthan Royals
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Steven Smith
Kane Williamson
David Warner