One will be battling for survival, the other will try to climb up the ladder in their quest for a playoffs berth. It would seem that Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals are two teams in contrast ahead of their match in Jaipur on Sunday. But that is not entirely true.
While on paper, Royals, the runners-up side last season, are definitely heavier than the Sunrisers, fact is that both of them have struggled on the pitch of late, as both have lost four of their last five games.
The Royals, especially, had a nightmare of a match against the Gujarat Titans on Friday, when they folded for just 118 and went on to lose the game by nine wickets.
It’s strange how they have wobbled despite having some of the best players in the T20 business. With 10 points so far, they will be optimistic about finding their winning touch back. A team that has Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, Shimron Hetmyer, Trent Boult, Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal can’t just fade away after a great start to the season.
Sunrisers’ problems are aplenty, but the biggest one is surely the disappointing returns from their biggest investment — Harry Brook. The Englishman has hardly done justice to his promise, though he has a century to boast of. Brooks’ failure with the bat has hurt Aiden Markram’s team the most and it will be interesting to see if he retains his place in the XI on Sunday.
New Zealander Glenn Phillips could be an alternative
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