Rajasthan Royals look to begin their Indian Premier League campaign on a high when they take on Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal, Hyderabad.
Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad suffered massive blows few days before the start of the tournament when their captains Steve Smith and David Warner were ruled out for their involvement in the ball-tampering scandal last month. Smith and Warner were handed one-year bans by Cricket Australia.
Following the CA verdict, Smith and Warner were barred by the BCCI from taking part in the IPL
Rajasthan, who are back in the tournament after serving a two-year suspension, and Hyderabad will thus not only miss their leadership skills but also two quality batters in their ranks.
For Rajasthan, England's star all-rounder Ben Stokes and Jaydev Unadkat, the highest paid Indian roped in this season (Rs 11.5 crore), would have to shoulder a lot of responsibility especially after the Jaipur-based franchise spent a lot on the pair.
They went big even after uncapped players like Sussex all-rounder Jofra Archer (Rs 7.2 crore) and Karnataka offie K Gowtham (Rs 6.2 crore).
Royals also did well in the IPL auction by picking proven performers in other T20 leagues such as the Big Bash League in Australia.
As a result, they have some exciting new faces in the IPL such as D'Arcy Short and Jofra Archer joining a talented bunch of Indian players.
Squads:
SRH: Kane Williamson (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Manish Pandey, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Wriddhiman Saha, Siddharth Kaul, Deepak Hooda, Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Shreevats Goswami, Ricky Bhui, Basil Thampi, T Natarajan, Sachin Baby, Bipul Sharma, Mehdi Hasan, Tanmay Agarwal, Alex Hales, Carlos Brathwaite, Rashid Khan, Shakib Al Hasan, Mohammad Nabi, Chris Jordan and Billy Stanlake.
RR: Ajinkya Rahane (Captain), Ankit Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jofra Archer, DArcy Short, Dushmantha Chameera, Stuart Binny, Shreyas Gopal, S Midhun, Jaydev Unadkat, Ben Laughlin, Prashant Chopra, Krishnappa Gowtham, Mahipal Lomror, Jatin Saxena, Anureet Singh, Aryaman Birla, Jos Buttler, Heinrich Klaasen, Zahir Khan and Rahul Tripathi.
IPL 2018, Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Rajasthan Royals: Live Cricket Streaming available on Hotstar from 8 PM today
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