Sunrisers Hyderabad started the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 well but with a hat-trick of defeats, their campaign has suffered a huge blow in the recent past.

In their last game, they suffered a dramatic batting collapse as their opening pair of Jonny Bairstow and David Warner failed to perform.

Barring Warner’s 400 runs and Bairstow’s 304 runs, the next best is World Cup bound Vijay Shankar’s 132 runs.

The basic problem has been the middle-order where Manish Pandey (54 in six games), Deepak Hooda (47 in six games) and Yusuf Pathan (32 in six games) have been miserable.

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With Sunrisers taking on Chennai Super Kings next, the team management will be looking at the other batsmen to provide support to the in-form opening duo.

Kane Williamson is back from injury and at the No. 3 position, he plays a pivotal role in guiding his side to a good total while batting first.

A lot of focus will also be on Shankar who found a place in India’s ICC World Cup 2019 squad and according to the selectors, will be batting at No. 4 for the Indian cricket team as well.

In the middle order, Manish Pandey can replace Ricky Bhui but Abhishek Verma is expected to retain his place.

Predicted XI: David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Kane Williamson, Vijay Shankar, Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda, Abhishek Verma, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed

First Published: Apr 17, 2019 10:30 IST