The 22nd match of the IPL 2020 will see Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) taking on Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in Dubai on October 8, 2020. Both teams have struggled to string together a series of wins, with SRH winning 2 out of their 5 matches, and KXIP winning just one game.
The Punjab franchise is reaching a stage where they might need to win every match going forward in the tournament in order to qualify for the playoffs, while SRH just needs to find some momentum with one win giving them that. In order to fulfill that, both teams need to pick their best players for the encounter and TEAM COC presents to the Predicted Playing XIs for the SRH v KXIP match.
SUNRISERS HYDERABAD (SRH)
Sunrisers can call themselves unlucky at the moment, as injuries to key players have ruined their side’s balance. First, they lost Mitchell Marsh, a good all-rounder capable of bowling medium-pace and hitting big shots.
However, the biggest blow to them came when they lost the services of their ace fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who won’t be playing further in the IPL 2020 due to a hip injury. Apart from him, left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed is injured as well and Bhuvneshwar’s replacement against MI, Siddharth Kaul gave away 64 runs in 4 overs.
This headache is enough for them, while they struggle with their middle-order problem. Garg, Sharma, and Samad need someone to stay with them and guide them during death overs and this means either Williamson or Pandey may drop down the order to do so in absence of any experience in the middle order.
They might go for the extra pace of Basil Thampi in place of Kaul, who looked toothless and ineffective against MI both at the start and in the death.
KINGS XI PUNJAB (KXIP)
Kings XI Punjab is back to their old ways of chopping and changing players on a per-game basis, but to everyone’s surprise, despite losing 4 out 5 matches, they haven’t utilized their trump cards of Chris Gayle and Mujeeb Ur Rahman till now.
Though Rahul and Mayank have done well at the top, Gayle gives them the X-factor needed to utilize the power plays. And Mujeeb presents them with an effective bowling option in the first six overs when batsmen go for quick runs.
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Glenn Maxwell has not performed upto the mark and may make way for Gayle, while Jordan should pave way for Mujeeb.
They might also want to add the services of J Suchith in the team, as the fifth bowler while Shami, Cottrell, and Bishnoi are doing their job with great results. Suchith’s batting ability might come in handy in death overs as well.
SRH COC Predicted Playing XI:
David Warner (C), Jonny Bairstow (WK), Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Priyam Garg, Abhishek Sharma, Abdul Samad, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Basil Thampi, T Natarajan
KXIP COC Predicted Playing XI:
Chris Gayle, KL Rahul (C), Mayank Agarwal, Nicholas Pooran (WK), Mandeep Singh, Sarfaraz Khan, J Suchith, Mohammad Shami, Sheldon Cottrell, Ravi Bishnoi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman
