Sunrisers Hyderabad are off to a flying start in the first over against Punjab Kings. The openers Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head scored nine runs in the over of Arshdeep Singh. The Punjab Kings pacer, who is going through a tough phase in the ongoing tournament, will be eager to get some wickets. 

SRH 9/0 (1 over)

The IPL 2026 match between Punjab Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad begins. For SRH, Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head have started the proceedings. The opening duo is looking to fight back against the lean patch and get as many runs possible in the powerplay. On the other hand, Arshdeep Singh will be bowling the first over for PBKS. 

"(On this season) It's good. Not getting the wickets as much as I want. The account is not open yet, but it's a positive sign as well. The team is doing well. We are winning the games. So, just looking forward that when I'll start performing, we'll dominate this league. So, looking forward to those matches and just having fun right now. Had a chat with Ricky and Hopes in the last session about this and they were like, we are very happy with the execution I'm doing," said PBKS pacer Arshdeep Singh. 

Sunrisers Hyderabad Impact subs: Jaydev Unadkat, Liam Livingstone, Shivam Mavi, Praful Hinge, Kamindu Mendis

Punjab Kings Impact subs: Nehal Wadhera, Vishnu Vinod, Suryansh Shedge, Yash Thakur, Harpreet Brar

Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan(w/c), Heinrich Klaasen, Salil Arora, Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Shivang Kumar, Harshal Patel, Eshan Malinga.

Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh(w), Cooper Connolly, Shreyas Iyer(c), Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal.

"We would have loved to bowl first. But yeah, I think wicket looks pretty hard to me. And it's about playing good cricket in the first innings. (On captaining) Obviously, it's a big disadvantage for any team, Pat is a tremendous bowler. He gets on with an experience of his. But still, I feel we've got a young side, young bowlers today in the team. And hopefully, we'll just try and execute the plans, which is the most important thing in T20 cricket. Yeah, there are two changes. Salil comes in in place of Livingstone and Praful Hinge, it's his debut game, in place of Jaydev Unadkat," said SRH skipper Ishan Kishan. 

"We're going to bowl first. It's a day game and obviously want to get a knack of how the wicket is going to play and a fair idea. But other than that, that's what we've been doing in the last couple of games. We've been thriving on that. (Things to address?) I personally feel that you can't control the nature of the weather. You've just got to go with the flow. And I personally feel that we don't have to address anything at any point of time. Just back each other, back all the youngsters in the team. The more you tell them, the confusing it gets for them. So, it's better that they live in their own nature and express themselves. No, we're going with the same team. Actually, bowling first, Priyansh comes in for Nehal," said PBKS skipper Shreyas Iyer. 

Punjab Kings skipper Shreyas Iyer wins toss, opts to bowl against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL 2026 match on Saturday. 

All eyes are on SRH opening batter Abhishek Sharma. The young opener, along with his partner Travis Head, has failed to play a big knock in this season. However, he will be eager to break the shackles against PBKS bowlers. 

"From a team perspective, we're looking at some of those SRH batters and they are incredibly destructive. But just to talk about the wicket quickly, it's a day game, so it's going to be slightly different. We've seen scores here of 160, 170 a couple of weeks ago. Again, a low scoring game. So I think the bowlers are the ones that are smiling. We're not going to get those big 220s, 230s this afternoon. I think batting first, you'll see that 170 kind of area and then as the sun starts to drop down, it'll skid on and become a little bit better. I think you're gonna find your match-up. On this pitch, it just brings them a little bit closer together. You can hold your length a little bit," said Dale Steyn. 

Adding to their woes SRH have seen little impact from the likes of Harshal Patel and Jaydev Unadkat. The batting efforts of Nitish Kumar Reddy and Heinrich Klaasen were among the few positives for SRH against LSG. Spinner Harsh Dubey has shown glimpses of brilliance in the powerplay and he would be expected to carry on with his form.

En route to our first afternoon game of the season! pic.twitter.com/47WLkE7tdE

— Punjab Kings (@PunjabKingsIPL) April 11, 2026

Sunrisers Hyderabad, despite their reputation for explosive batting and big totals, have faltered this season largely due to top-order collapses as seen against RCB and LSG when the dangerous opening pair of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma fell cheaply.

Led by Shreyas Iyer, PBKS have come to symbolise what a winning unit should look like, whether it is chasing down a 200-plus total with ease against Chennai Super Kings in a sea of yellow or overcoming former champions Gujarat Titans on a tricky Mullanpur surface. They could have been on course for a third successive win against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens with Australian quick Xavier Bartlett wreaking havoc before heavy rain and a thunderstorm forced them to share a point with the hosts.

A plucky Punjab Kings will back themselves against a star studded yet inconsistent Sunrisers Hyderabad. Considering how they have started the season, PBKS must be disappointed about sharing a point with KKR in their last game due to rain.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the IPL 2026 match between Punjab Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad, straight from the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur. Stay tuned for all the live updates.