SRH make 4 changes

April 17, 2021 19:24

Mumbai Indians' skipper Rohit Sharma has won the toss and elected to bat against SunRisers Hyderabad in their IPL encounter in Chennai on Saturday.

SRH have made four changes. Wriddhiman Saha, Jason Holder, Shahbaz Nadeem and T Natarajan are out while Virat Singh, Abhishek Sharma, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Khaleel Ahmed come in as replacements.

Milne comes in for Marco Jansen in MI.

The nature of the Chennai track is not great news for the David Warner-led SRH, who failed to chase down a total less than 150.

Chasing has been Sunrisers' big problem in the first two matches, once again bringing under scanner, their lack of depth in the playing XI and the below-par Indian bench strength.

In these circumstances, facing a formidable team like Mumbai Indians, fresh from their great escape against Kolkata Knight Riders, would be a difficult proposition.

For skipper Warner, there are some serious questions about the choice of the playing XI, which many believe hasn't been well thought out and the results also back that assessment.

And Krunal Pandya, who bowls a much flatter trajectory and also a few clicks quicker than Shahbaz, can make matters even worse for the likes of Pandey and Samad if they don't come up with a better gameplan.

For Pandey, being dropped from India's central contracts on Thursday, has been a blow but his inability to finish games regularly is one of the reasons that he might not wear the India blues anytime soon.

However, this tournament gives him a platform to do course correction. He is one of the five with slowest strike-rates to reach 3000 IPL runs.

On a track like Chepauk, at times it becomes imperative to play as late as possible and use the depth of the crease well, which Williamson is adept at.

The other issue has been team's bowling with Thangarasu Natarajan not in the kind of form he was last season and Bhuvneshwar Kumar also on the expensive side.

Options like Sandeep Sharma and Siddarth Kaul don't inspire too much confidence when one looks at Mumbai Indians top-order comprising Rohit Sharma, Quinton de Kock, Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan.

It is unlikely that MI will tinker with their playing XI and more so after winning a thriller against KKR.

However, they would like to put up a better account of their batting as theirs is a line-up that can just throw the pitch factor out of equation on a given day.

Playing XI:

Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (c), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Manish Pandey, Virat Singh, Vijay Shankar, Abhishek Sharma, Abdul Samad, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Khaleel Ahmed

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Rahul Chahar, Adam Milne, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult

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