Sunrisers Hyderabad find themselves in a strange position where they have one of the most talented squads in IPL 2025, but somehow find themselves rooted to the foot of the table. Four consecutive losses have seen them dried of all momentum, but is there much they can change? Their woe has been their star players failing to perform, in particular their superstar opening duo, which in turn has caused their star-studded batting lineup to falter.
SRH have tried out a range of combinations to just shore the batting up a bit and get something more out of their lineup. Abhinav Manohar was moved on for Kamindu Mendis, but Adam Zampa missing out from their bowling as a result has caused a little bit of weakness in that department as well.
SRH will therefore want to back their batting at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium as they prepare to host a mighty Punjab Kings team, whose firing batting unit might convince Pat Cummins and the SRH management think-tank to take that extra bowler in. SRH’s batting simply must come good at some stage of this tournament, and if they do, it spells trouble for a team even as complete as that of PBKS.
Punjab, on the other hand, have been able to find a strong balance thanks to someone or the other in their team consistently standing up so far. The fact that they sit on six points after four games without needing Glenn Maxwell or Marcus Stoinis to really fire speaks to the strength of their Indian core. This starts from their exciting uncapped Indian openers, all the way down to Shashank Singh playing like a premium finisher lower in the order.
{{/usCountry}}Punjab, on the other hand, have been able to find a strong balance thanks to someone or the other in their team consistently standing up so far. The fact that they sit on six points after four games without needing Glenn Maxwell or Marcus Stoinis to really fire speaks to the strength of their Indian core. This starts from their exciting uncapped Indian openers, all the way down to Shashank Singh playing like a premium finisher lower in the order.
{{/usCountry}}PBKS likely won’t make too many changes, allowing themselves the impact sub flexibility to decide whether Yash Thakur gets another game as an extra bowler or whether they need to go with one of their alternatives. Shreyas Iyer’s team is looking at an opportunity to climb further up the table, and you would think the unit would be fired up to try and make life in this tournament even more difficult for last year’s runners-up.
SRH vs PBKS Likely XIs
SRH likely XI: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Pat Cummins, Harshal Patel, Zeeshan Ansari, Mohammed Shami, Adam Zampa
PBKS likely XI: Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Nehal Wadhera, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Shashank Singh, Marco Jansen, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Lockie Ferguson