Comeback man David Warner would be the cynosure of all eyes when last year’s finalist Sunrisers Hyderabad open their campaign against two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2019 at Eden Garden, Kolkata on Sunday. Under Warner’s captaincy Sunrisers won their maiden IPL title in 2016 and in 2017 he was the leading rungetter for his team. But the Australian opener missed the last IPL because of last year’s infamous ball tampering episode in Capetown, and is set make his IPL comeback along side Steve Smith.
Kane Williamson, who led them to runners-up finish in the Aussie’s absence last season, will continue to captain Sunrisers, a team that is known for its depth and variation in bowling. While Bhuvneshwar Kumar will lead Sunrisers pace department, Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan will be in charge of the spin attack. Sunrisers have traded in Vijay Shankar, Shahbaz Nadeem and Abhishek Sharma for Shikhar Dhawan, but the it remains to be seen how they overcome the Indian opener’s departure.
In KKR’s camp, skipper Dinesh Karthik will look to make most of the IPL opportunity to get the selectors’ attention. Taking charge of the team after Gautam Gambhir’s exit, Karthik led KKR to third place finish following their loss to SRH in the second eliminator last year. KKR have roped in Carlos Brathwaite to go along side Andre Russell, Sunil Narine as they would look to reinforce their batting firepower with Chris Lynn.
KKR probable playing 11: Dinesh Karthik, Shubman Gill, Andre Russell, Carlos Brathwaite, Sunil Narine, Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Nikhil Naik, Prasidh Krishna.
SRH probable playing 11: Kane Willilamson, David Warner, Yusuf Pathan, Rashid Khan, Jonny Bairstow, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul, Sandeep Sharma, Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Manish Pandey.
FPJ’s dream 11: Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell, Kane Willilamson, David Warner, Yusuf Pathan, Rashid Khan, Shubman Gill, Robin Uthappa, Vijay Shankar, Piyush Chawla, Manish Pandey.
With PTI inputs