IPL 2023: Sunrisers batsmen will be tested in front of Lucknow’s spin attack
Hyderabad. The Sunrisers Hyderabad team’s batsmen, who raised their hopes by registering an unexpected win in the last match, will have to undergo a tough test in front of the spinners of Lucknow Supergiants in the Indian Premier League (IPL) match to be held here on Saturday. Lucknow have lost two of the last three matches but if they beat the Aiden Markram-led Sunrisers team, then they will make it to the top four. As far as the Sunrisers team is concerned, it is currently at the ninth position in the 10-team points table with eight points from 10 matches. The Lucknow team, led by Krunal Pandya, is in fifth place with 11 points from 11 matches.
Uppal’s wicket, however, has been helping the slower bowlers and in such a situation the role of spinners will be crucial. Lucknow have a useful spin trio in the form of Ravi Bishnoi, experienced Amit Mishra and captain Krunal, in front of whom the Sunrisers batsmen may have to struggle. Sunrisers’ batting is dependent on three overseas players Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen and Glenn Phillips. Phillips made it to the playing XI due to the failure of Harry Brook, sold for Rs 13.25 crore. If we talk about spinners, Lucknow seems to have the upper hand over Hyderabad. Sunrisers’ spin department has weakened due to Washington Sundar’s injury.
Mayank Markande, the only spinner from his side, has been able to perform well so far. The Hyderabad team looks strong on paper but it has to suffer the loss of poor form of two leading Indian batsmen Mayank Agarwal (187 runs in 9 matches) and Rahul Tripathi (237 runs in 10 matches). Apart from Klaasen (185.34), Abhishek Sharma (152.63) is the only batsman among his top-order batsmen to score at a strike rate of more than 150. As far as Lucknow’s batting is concerned, captain KL Rahul’s injury hasn’t affected the team much as the top order has Quinton de Kock and Kyle Myers adept at batting from the start.
The middle order has the likes of Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran who have played some good innings so far. Ayush Badoni has also made an impact but it was a slow Lucknow wicket on which his batsmen could not play freely. Lucknow’s batsmen would like to showcase their attacking game on the wicket here but they will have to be cautious against the pace bowling duo of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and T Natarajan.
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Squad: Sunrisers Hyderabad: Aiden Markram (Captain), Abdul Samad, Rahul Tripathi, Glenn Phillips, Abhishek Sharma, Marco Johnson, Fazalhaq Farooqui, Karthik Tyagi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T. Natarajan, Umran Malik, Harry Brook, Mayank Agarwal , Heinrich Klaasen, Adil Rashid, Mayank Markande, Vivrant Sharma, Samarth Vyas, Sanveer Singh, Upendra Yadav, Mayank Dagar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Akil Hossain and Anmolpreet Singh. Lucknow Supergiants: Krunal Pandya (c), Kyle Mayers, Deepak Hooda, Amit Mishra, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Naveen-ul-Haq, Ayush Badoni, Avesh Khan, Karan Sharma, Yudhveer Charak, Yash Thakur, Romario Shepherd, Mark Wood, Swapnil Singh, Manan Vohra, Daniel Symes, Prerak Mankad, Krishnappa Gautam, Marcus Stoinis, Ravi Bishnoi, Karun Nair and Mayank Yadav. The match will start at 3.30 pm Indian time.
