SRH and KXIP haven’t really had the best starts to their respective IPL 2020 campaign’s. Both the teams need to Adresss their own issues in order to come out victorious. Both these teams are all set to face each other. Neither of the teams would take this contest lightly as the team which loses this match makes their chances to make it to the playoffs complicated. SRH has the upper hand going into this fixture with a head-to-head record of 10-4 in their favour. But they will have to wary of KXIP’s power-packed batting with KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal featuring among the highest run-scorers in IPL 2020. With both teams looking for a morale-boosting win on Thursday, we should be in for an entertaining game at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
Match Details
Match:
Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Kings XI Punjab
Date and Time:
8th October 2020, at 7:30 PM IST
Venue:
Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai
What To Expect:
A good batting track awaits the two sides on Thursday with the average first innings score in Dubai being 179 in IPL 2020. While the batsmen have made good use of the conditions at this venue, there is ample help on offer for the bowlers as well.The pacers have gotten the new ball to swing around and have kept the batsmen on their toes. In fact, most teams have looked to see out the opening passage of play without any loss of wickets.The spinners have extracted some turn off the surface and their battle against the batsmen in the middle overs will be crucial in the context of the game. Wickets in hand is another key aspect with both teams likely to bat first upon winning the toss despite dew playing a part later in the game.Anything above 165 should be a good score with the pitch conditions unlikely to change much during this IPL fixture.
Kings XI Punjab:
While the trio of Rahul, Pooran and Agarwal have delivered consistently with the bat, the bowlers haven’t been able to come up with the goods with the duo of Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis taking them to the cleaners in their most recent game. KXIP currently dwell at the bottom of the table with just one win in five games and would desperately want to turn things around on Thursday.
KXIP Predicted Playing XI:
KL Rahul (C&WK), Mayank Agarwal, Mandeep Singh, Glenn Maxwell, Nicholas Pooran, Sarfaraz Khan, Krishnappa Gowtham, Mohammed Shami, Ravi Bishnoi, Sheldon Cottrell, Mujeeb ur Rehman/Chris Jordan.
Sunrisers Hyderabad:
Sunrisers Hyderabad have done relatively better with two wins in five games. However, they have already lost Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mitchell Marsh to injuries, which now leaves David Warner and the team management with a lot of selection questions. While SRH’s middle order has fared well in recent games, Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s absence is one that SRH will be most worried about with Siddharth Kaul looking out of his depth against MI. The onus will be on David Warner to fire at the top of the order, considering that his form directly correlates to the way SRH perform in the IPL.
SRH Predicted Playing XI:
David Warner (C), Jonny Bairstow (WK), Manish Pandey, Priyam Garg, Kane Williamson/Jason Holder, Abdul Samad, Abhishek Sharma, Rashid Khan, Basil Thampi/Siddharth Kaul, T Natarajan and Sandeep Sharma