SRH are virtually out of the tournament.
The Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) are virtually out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 campaign. However, for their home game against Delhi Capitals (DC), skipper Pat Cummins has announced three major changes in their playing XI, including dropping bowler Mohammed Shami for this game.
Notably, Cummins won the toss and chose to field first for tonight’s fixture at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal.
All-rounders Nitish Kumar Reddy, Kamindu Mendis and bowler Mohammed Shami have been left out for this DC clash.
In place of the trio, Abhinav Manohar, Sachin Baby, and Eshan Malinga will take on the field.
Starting with Shami, the India pacer has had an awful tournament, picking up six wickets in nine SRH games. His best of 2/28 came on a losing day against the Gujarat Titans. In comparison, the 24-year-old Malinga has performed well. He has snared five wickets in four games with a 2/36 best against the Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Wankhede Stadium.
The 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy hero, NKR, has played all 10 SRH games. However, his willow hasn’t worked in the cash-rich league. He has made 173 runs in nine innings at an average of 24.71 and a sub-par strike rate of 120.13. The all-rounder has primarily been used as a batter this season. Featuring in only four games so far, Mendis hasn’t been effective either, with 60 runs and two wickets.
Out of his five SRH games, Abhinav Manohar looked in good touch against MI at the same venue. He made a 37-ball 43.
Sachin Baby is making his debut in the orange kit tonight. The Kerala batter is back to the IPL set-up for the first time since 2021.
Overall, all the tactical changes made by SRH are to maximise their chances for the playoffs’ qualification. If they win their remaining four games, they will have an outside chance to finish above the danger line on the points table. However, they will still need to depend on external results and maintain a safe NRR to go above DC and Punjab Kings.
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Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (w), Sachin Baby, Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Abhinav Manohar, Pat Cummins (c), Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, Zeeshan Ansari, Eshan Malinga.
Impact Subs: Travis Head, Harsh Dubey, Rahul Chahar, Wiaan Mulder, Mohammed Shami.
Delhi Capitals (Playing XI): Faf du Plessis, Abishek Porel, Karun Nair, KL Rahul (w), Axar Patel (c), Tristan Stubbs, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan.
Impact Subs: Ashutosh Sharma, Jake Fraser McGurk, Sameer Rizvi, Mukesh Kumar, Mohit Sharma.
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