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England's emerging star set for debut, eyes on Bhuvneshwar's captaincy: SRH’s likely XI vs RR in IPL 2023
Sunrisers Hyderabad open their IPL 2023 campaign against Rajasthan Royals. Here is the likely playing XI for their opener.
A much-changed Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) start their 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad against last season's runner-up Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Sunday. SRH finished the 2022 season in eighth position with just six wins from 14 matches. That has forced the franchise to make big changes ahead of the 16th edition of the star-studded league. (SRH vs RR Live Score, IPL 2023)
After ending up as the wooden spooners in the 2021 edition, Sunrisers showed a small improvement last year but it was not enough to take them to the playoffs. They lost five matches back-to-back in the latter stages of the league phase which prevented them from finishing in the top four.
Ahead of the 2023 season, SRH promoted Brian Lara from batting coach to head coach, replacing Tom Moody, and South African middle order batsman Aiden Markram has been appointed as the new captain to lead the team. He, however, won't be available for Sunday's fixture due to national duties. Veteran pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar will step up to lead SRH against RR.
Former captain Kane Williamson was released ahead of the mini-auction in December, following poor returns last year. West Indies stars Nicholas Pooran and Romario Shepherd were also released along with nine other players.
SRH entered the IPL 2023 player auction with the biggest purse of INR 42.25 crore and spent it wisely to recruit quality additions. They spent ₹13.25 crore to sign English sensation Harry Brook and ₹8.25 crore for the experienced Indian top-order batter Mayank Agarwal.
Sunrisers Hyderabad have in all signed 13 new players and now have a balanced squad with quality backup options for IPL 2023.
SRH boasts of explosive overseas batters with the likes of Markram, Brook, Kiwi wicketkeeper-batter Glenn Phillips and South African wicketkeeper-batter Heinrich Klaasen all capable of taking the game away from the opposition on any given day. They will also be hoping that their domestic batting talent in the form of Rahul Tripathi, Abhishek Sharma, and Agarwal work in tandem with the overseas talent to form a formidable batting line-up.
SRH have three quality Indian bowlers in Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik, and T Natarajan. All three pacers were impressive last season with a combined 52 wickets between them.
Umran topped the chart with 22 wickets while Natarajan bagged 18 from just 11 innings. But both struggled to control their economy rate which was above 9. That's where Bhuvneshwar came in with 12 wickets at an economy of just over 7. South African all-rounder Marco Jansen completes their pace bowling attack. SRH also have Adil Rashid and Washington Sundar in the spin department.
SRH predicted XI vs RR
Openers: Mayank Agarwal, Abhishek Sharma.
Middle Order: Harry Brook, Rahul Tripathi, Glenn Phillips (wk).
All-Rounders: Washington Sundar, Abdul Samad.
Bowlers: Umran Malik, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (c), Adil Rashid.
