With both teams facing the threat of being possibly eliminated from the competition, a win for either teams is a must to keep them in contention for a qualification berth.
Sunrisers Hyderabad have a major worry up their hands as their front-line batsman Kane Williamson is carrying an injury, which seems to still be serious. There is no certainty over Williamson featuring for SRH in their clash against RR later in the evening.
Owing to his leg injury, Williamson was promoted up the order to provide a quick fire start to the innings, which the Kiwi batsman did with success scoring a quick fire 19-ball 29. The thought process behind sending Williamson up the order was to have him provide the impetus up the order by scoring boundaries rather than taking singles in the powerplays.
SRH bowling coach Muttiah Muralitharan said “We decided to (open with him) because of the injury,” he said post the game. “He was finding it difficult to run 2s and 3s. We thought this was the best opportunity, because he is playing really well, to use him in the powerplay, give us a good total so that it’s easier for us to win. He did his job but at the end of the day it was a tied match and it happens in T20. We tried hard but nothing went our way.”
With the possibility of Williamson not making it to the playing eleven for the all important clash against Rajasthan Royals (RR), Sunrisers have to ponder hard as to who can replace Williamson in the Playing XI.
Who Can Be A Better Bet To Replace Injured Kane Williamson In Playing XI - Mohammad Nabi or Jason Holder
Will it be the Windies seam all-rounder Jason Holder or Afghanistan spin all-rounder Mohammad Nabi who replaces Williamson in the playing XI. There could also be a glimmer of hope that Williamson gets match fit just in time ahead of the RR game.
Both Nabi and Holder will add depth and balance to the SRH squad with their all-round abilities. While Holder can bolster the seam attack which seems to struggle without Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Nabi could pair up with his Afghanistan spin twin Rashid Khan to further strengthen the spin attack.
Both Holder and Nabi are more than capable with the willow down the order and can provide the late impetus to SRH's innings.
In the larger context of things, SRH are heavily dependent on their two openers David Warner and Jonny Bairstow and Manish Pandey. If Williamson does not get to play, they could be a batsman short as the middle order is relatively inexperienced with young Priyam Garg and Abhishek Sharma.
The playing combination of the team and the conditions on offer at Dubai International Stadium in Dubai will also need to be taken into consideration.
If one were to go by the franchise's social media updates, the franchise had dropped a hint of sorts that Mohamad Nabi might get the nod. It posted a picture the Afghanistan all-rounder and wrote: “Warning: Big hits from The President incoming”.