Bhuvneshwar Kumar will lead Sunrisers Hyderabad in their opening game. (Source: IPL/BCCI)Bhuvneshwar Kumar was handed the captaincy reins for Sunrisers Hyderabad in their opening game of IPL 2019 against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens on Sunday. The regular captain Kane Williamson was ruled out due to an injury and is likely to miss out on the first few games this season.
“I am glad they chose me to captain the side. If you look at our side, there are players like Warner and Shakib who can help me. With Warner at the top it’s always good,” Kumar said after losing the toss.
Apart from Warner and Bairstow, SRH included Shakib Al Hasan and Rashid Khan as the two foreign players in the team to boost their spin attack on an Eden Gardens surface that is likely to offer turn.
David Warner, who was banned from playing IPL last season due to the ball-tampering controversy, made a return to the T20 tournament for SRH in their opening game, while England opener Jonny Bairstow was given a debut by SRH.
For KKR, right-armer Lockie Ferguson will make his debut in the match as he was named in the playing XI along with Sunil Narine, Andre Russell and Chris Lynn were included as the other two foreign players in the team.
SRH (Playing XI): David Warner, Jonny Bairstow(w), Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda, Shakib Al Hasan, Vijay Shankar, Yusuf Pathan, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar(c), Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul
KKR (Playing XI): Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Robin Uthappa, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik(w/c), Andre Russell, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Prasidh Krishna
