Sunday’s first double-header tie of Indian T20 League 2020 will be played between struggling Rajasthan and the confident Hyderabad.
Match Timings: Oct 11, 3:30 PM
Team Preview
Win the toss, bat first, put a good total on board and win the match – this is the ultimate winning formula of Hyderabad and they have carried this formula from the last couple of years. Rashid Khan played a big match-winner in most of their victories and UAE’s spin tracks are offering more celebration for Orange Army. Despite some batting errors in flag-overs, Hyderabad put 201 against Punjab and the bowlers did the rest of the job. Picking Williamson ahead of the Nabi worked for Warner as they lost just one game since Nabi played for them. The youngsters are not their weakness anymore and Bhuvi’s absence is giving their pace duo Natarajan-Khaleel to perform high. Hyderabad still needs one quality spinner to support Rashid in middle-overs but Warner is optimistic on Abdul Samad to play this role.
Meanwhile, Rajasthan needs a big revival and Ben Stokes could give them confidence on Saturday. The English all-rounder has joined the squad but the combination would be tough for Smith as Tom Curran will be dropped and except Archer, no pacer has impressed so far. Kartik Tyagi has shown some positives. Rajasthan is not looking for Markande who can give good support to Shreyas Gopal. Their Sharjah’s chapter is closed and they will play their all remaining games in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Pitch Report
Dubai’s ground is good for batting and team crossed 180 while batting first on most of the occasions. Spinners can play a big role as the surface is now a pure spinning track. Chasing is not a good call if the opponents have a quality spin. Being the day game, the dew factor would be avoided and spinners will take command of the game.
Possible XI
Hyderabad
David Warner (c), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Priyam Garg, Abhishek Sharma, Abdul Samad, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed, T Natarajan
Rajasthan
Jos Buttler (wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Steven Smith (c), Sanju Samson, Mahipal Lomror, Ben Stokes, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Ankit Rajpoot, Kartik Tyagi
Key Players
Hyderabad
Jonny Bairstow
Season so far – M: 6, Runs: 245, Avg: 40.17
Rashid Khan
Season so far – M: 6, Wickets: 8, Avg: 14.50
Rajasthan
Jos Buttler
Previous outing – 70 (44)
Shreyas Gopal
Good with the spin on slow tracks
