Placed fifth in the eight-team standings with 12 points, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) are just a win away from securing a playoff berth and they will need to dish out something special when they face a rampaging Mumbai Indians (MI) in the last league match of IPL 2020 on Tuesday.
With 18 points, defending champions MI have ticked all the boxes so far and stopping their juggernaut will definitely be a herculean task for David Warner's team.
SRH must have drawn confidence from their consecutive two wins against Delhi and Bangalore. However, the challenge on Tuesday could possibly be a different one.
Warner, Wriddhiman Saha, Manish Pandey, and Kane Williamson, SRH boast a solid top-order, and they have a power-hitter in the middle-order in the form of all-rounder Jason Holder, who has been pretty decent in both departments of the game -- batting and bowling.
In bowling, pacers Sandeep Sharma and T Natarajan have also regained their confidence while ace leg-spinner Rashid Khan continues to be their go-to man.
On the other hand, MI have the most balanced side in the league. Batting mainstay Ishan Kishan and all-rounder Keiron Pollard have filled the void in the absence of regular skipper Rohit Sharma, who is injured.
While Kishan, the Jharkhand stumper-batsman, has provided flying starts at the top, Pollard has led the team quite well in Rohit's absence.
Opener Quinton de Kock and Suryakumar Yadav are the other in-form batters while Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya and Pollard form a solid lower middle-order.
Speedsters Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult will once again look to trouble the SRH batters with their lethal pace while Rahul Chahar, Krunal and Pollard would be keen to provide additional support to them.
The last time the two sides clashed, MI had registered a 34-run win and the four-time champions will look to dent Hyderabad's chances. On the other side, SRH will look to garner a much-needed win as only it could push them through.
Squads:
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson, David Warner (captain), Jonny Bairstow (wicket-keeper), Manish Pandey, Mohammad Nabi, Priyam Garg, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), Virat Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Basil Thampi, Abhishek Sharma, Billy Stanlake, Sandeep Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Shreevats Goswami, Siddarth Kaul, K Khaleel Ahmed, T. Natarajan, Mitchell Marsh, Bavanaka Sandeep, Fabian Allen, Abdul Samad, Sanjay Yadav, Rashid Khan
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (captain), Quinton de Kock (wicket-keeper), Digvijay Deshmukh, Aditya Tare (wk), Saurabh Tiwary, Jasprit Bumrah, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Rahul Chahar, Chris Lynn, Hardik Pandya, Sherfane Rutherford, Anmolpreet Singh, Mohsin Khan, Mitchell McClenaghan, Prince Balwant Rai, Anukul Roy, Ishan Kishan, Dhawal Kulkarni, Trent Boult, Jayant Yadav, Suryakumar Yadav, Nathan Coulter-Nile, James Pattinson
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)