Vivo IPL 2017 Wednesday, 5th April
Injuries plague Royal Challengers in tournament opener
A match preview by Vedant Jain
Match 1:Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Sunrisers Hyderabad
Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Hyderabad (Capacity 65,000)
Wednesday, 5th April
8:00pm IST
It’s that time of year again. The IPL is back for her 10th anniversary we’re in for one hell of a birthday celebration. Celebrities, bright lights, hot cheerleaders, pyrotechnics, and perhaps, most iconically, that tune. What better an occasion to celebrate the ‘coming of age’ of the child cricket once didn’t take seriously. Perennially tournament favourites, Bangalore will be looking to make a mark on the tournament early, unlike their poor start to the 2016 edition. The Sunrisers, too, would be looking to score early points against a team that will compete fiercely with them for a spot in the top 4.
Team News:
The Royal Challengers Bangalore take on the reigning champions, the Sunrisers Hyderabad at their home ground in what is, in all honesty, a less high-profile contest than most expected. Both the hosts and their opponents are missing key players. The Royal Challengers are without their captain and highest scorer in the 2016 edition, Virat Kohli, while also making do without key batsman AB de Villiers. They are also without keeper-batsman KL Rahul and middle order batsman Sarfaraz Khan. They will be reliant on top order stalwart Chris Gayle to give them a good start, as well as hoping their newly bolstered bowling attack will fire.
For the Sunrisers, their middle order concerns carry into this season with a lack of consistency from Yuvraj Singh, Naman Ojha and Deepak Hooda. Shikhar Dhawan’s being dropped from the national side coupled with poor domestic form will also be an area of concern for the Sunrisers. Furthermore, David Warner’s wretched run in the recently concluded test series versus India will be a major worry for the hosts. However, Moises Henriques looks a significantly better player than he was a year ago and the Sunrisers would hope that he shows good form in the tournament.
Hyderabad’s bowling unit, despite the lack of Mustafizur Rahman, is solid. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has come into his own as a death bowler, and Ashish Nehra’s national T20 comeback in 2016 holds the hosts in good stead to keep the economy rate low and take wickets at regular intervals. The Afghan teenage leg-spinner, Rashid Khan, is expected to make his IPL debut and the Sunrisers would be waiting to see how he fares at the top level with bated breath.
Pitch and Weather Report:
Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium is expected to draw huge crowds to see the tournament opener. The pitch is expected to be helpful for the batsmen, as it usually is with an average batting first score of 158 being more a testament to the Sunrisers’ bowling line-up than the pitch itself. Temperatures are expected to be in the high thirties and rain is not expected during the game, despite some showers in the early afternoon.
Teams (probable):
| Sunrisers Hyderabad | Royal Challengers Bangalore |
| David Warner (capt.) | Chris Gayle |
| Shikhar Dhawan | Mandeep Singh |
| Moises Henriques | Travis Head |
| Yuvraj Singh | Shane Watson (capt.) |
| Deepak Hooda | Kedhar Jhadav (wk) |
| Naman Ojha (wk) | Sachin Baby |
| Vijay Shankar | Stuart Binny |
| Chris Jordan | Pawan Negi |
| Rashid Khan | Yuvzendra Chahal |
| Bhuvneshwar Kumar | Tymal Mills |
| Ashish Nehra | Aniket Choudhry |
Match Prediction:
It is expected that the injuries will be too much for the Royal Challengers to overcome and that they will not be able to match up to a solid Sunrisers line-up.
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Vedant Jain is a contributor for CricMetric. For any queries, comments or information, email vedantja@usc.edu