Sunrisers Hyderabad will expect consistency from their top-order when they host Kolkata Knight Riders in an Indian Premier League match in Hyderabad on Thursday.
Both teams are languishing at the bottom of the table and another loss will put a serious dent in their play-off qualification chances.
Getting Abhishek Sharma back to open the innings worked in the previous game for Sunrisers and now they will be hoping their other opener, Mayank Agarwal, finds some fluency.
The batting as a whole has not clicked for Sunrisers and it is no surprise they find themselves in a desperate situation in the second half of the tournament.
While Agarwal is striking at an underwhelming 110 at the top, number three Rahul Tripathi is not faring any better either. Skipper Aiden Markram too needs to lead from the front and Harry Brook, despite scoring a hundred, has failed otherwise. He is back in the middle order and the management will be hoping that he finds some rhythm.
All-rounder Washington Sundar's ouster due to injury is a big blow to Sunrisers.
Pacer Umran Malik has the worst economy rate among the bowlers and has only taken five wickets in seven games, contributing to the team's woes.
KKR too would be expecting more fluency from their batters as they look to get their campaign back on track after six defeats in nine games.
They have been found wanting in all three departments of the game, something that was mentioned by skipper Nitish Rana after the loss to Gujarat Giants.
"In crucial games and against top oppositions, you need to do all the basics well in all the three departments of the game," he had said.
Rana has not shown the consistency that is expected of him while N Jagadeesan has struggled at the top. Both Jason Roy and Rahmanullah Gurbaz have shown good form at the top but the management can only play one of them.
The performance of pace bowlers has also hurt KKR. All-rounder Andre Russell and Shardul Thakur have conceded more than 10 runs per over. Harshit Rana did well in his first game and is likely to start again.
The spin trio of Varun Chakaravarthy, Sunil Narine and Suyash Sharma has been effective but need support from the fast bowlers.
Squads:
Kolkata Knight Riders: Nitish Rana (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Anukul Roy, Rinku Singh, N Jagadeesan, Vaibhav Arora, Suyash Sharma, David Wiese, Kulwant Khejroliya, Litton Das, Mandeep Singh and Jason Roy.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Aiden Markram (c), Abdul Samad, Rahul Tripathi, Glenn Phillips, Abhishek Sharma, Marco Jansen, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kartik Tyagi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T. Natarajan, Umran Malik, Harry Brook, Mayank Agarwal, Heinrich Klaasen, Adil Rashid, Mayank Markande, Vivrant Sharma, Samarth Vyas, Sanvir Singh, Upendra Yadav, Mayank Dagar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Akeal Hosein and Anmolpreet Singh.
Match starts: 7.30pm IST.
