IPL 2020, SRH VS RCB: Everything you need to know ahead of crunch match

Bowling Performances of Umesh Yadav in IPL

Men in red will take on men in orange. Royal Challengers Bengaluru will start their IPL 2020 journey with aim of starting well in pursuit of first IPL title. Their opponents in Sunrisers Hyderabad have been a fairly consistent performing team in last three seasons reaching playoffs all three times and were runners up in 2018 edition as well.

The match is going to take place at Dubai International Cricket Stadium behind closed doors. There would not be any crowd support to cheer them so adaptability and assessing pitch conditions will be a great challenge, Dew does settle in later on so team chasing will have an advantage if they do not lose wickets upfront. RCB have always been slow starters so they would like to start with a win. Their bowling has been under scrutiny for many reasons and they have strengthened the bowling by spending big on Chris Morris and have retained services of Dale Steyn as well. They have recruited Devdutt Padikkal also who will be someone to watch out for and will be expected to give flying starts to RCB in the company of Aaron Finch.

Parthiv Patel looks most likely to make way for Padikkal. Finch would like to take the pressure off Virat and ABD by scoring big runs in the powerplay. RCB bowlers have their task cut out as they have to tackle the opening partnership of Warner-Bairstow who were the best opening combination of 2019 IPL season. Both had shared four partnerships over 100 with RCB being on receiving end on one occasion.

For SRH this year also opening partnership will hold the key and both Warner-Bairstow will like to continue their last year IPL form. SRH middle order will have their tasks cut out as if the opening partnership has an off day the likes of Manish Pandey, Shankar, Virat Singh (SRH expecting bigger things from him), Abdul Samad (Recruited on Irfan’s recommendation) have to play smartly and should score the runs that gave their bowlers a chance. Bhuvnesh Kumar is the bowler around which SRH bowling fortune fluctuate and if he could get back to his best then SRH bowling will be a threat. Sandeep, Sidharth, Khaleel would like to deliver consistent performances.

Bairstow, Warner, Rashid are certainty and with Mohammad Nabi’s exploit in CPL and his playing experience in UAE he should get in as 4th foreigner which means Kane Williamson would have to sit out. Pitch is likely to assist fast bowlers so both teams would like to win the toss and make early inroads and with dew to come into play later batting second is always easy. Boundaries are long so bowlers of both teams would have some ground cushion and boundary riders of both teams will be in action.

If SRH bowlers can found the length and especially Bhuvneshwar can find his mojo, RCB batters will have to sweat out for every run. Rashid Khan‘s duel with Virat-ABD combination will be one of battle to watch out for. SRH middle order will be tested against the guile of Chahal. Warner has to use Rashid in a different stage also. The team that plays well should win and look at how teams have played in IPL openers, SRH look favourites to win but you never know what’s in store.