Although the Royals had a brilliant start to their IPL campaign, they dwell near the bottom of the IPL points table with just four points out of a possible twelve. They have lost all of their last four games, a woeful run that has coincided with the poor form of captain Steve Smith and Sanju Samson.
Their batsmen have failed miserably despite a sparkling show in the opening two matches. RR captain Steve Smith has some thinking to do and will be desperate for the inclusion of Ben Stokes in his playing XI.
The Royals will be hoping to have the services of Ben Stokes who completes his mandatory quarantine on Saturday. His presence will lend balance to a Rajasthan side that has struggled to find the right combination in their six matches so far.
Stokes had taken compassionate leave in the middle of England’s home Test series against Pakistan in August and travelled to New Zealand to attend to his father who had been diagnosed with brain cancer.
“Stokes hasn’t had a lot of practice, he gets out of quarantine tomorrow, so we’ll see if he plays the day after tomorrow,” skipper Steve Smith had said after the match against Delhi Capitals on Friday.
With the likes of Jofra Archer and Rahul Tewatia impressing with the ball in hand in recent games, the Royals would be hopeful of a morale-boosting win on Sunday.
For Sunrisers, Bairstow has been in decent form this season, smashing 97 off 55 balls against KXIP, and the English opener was at his explosive best against the Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore, too.
Skipper David Warner, who has scored 227 runs so far, would like to carry on with his good form after smashing 52 off 40 balls in the last match.
Absence of Bhuveneshwar Kumar and Mitchell Marsh due to injuries does not seem to affect the bowling attack of SRH as the world's top-ranked T20 bowler Rashid and yorker specialist T Natarajan have been dishing out splendid performances.
SRH vs RR Match Details
TOSS: The Indian Premier League match toss between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals will take place at 3 PM (IST) – October 11.
Time: 3.30 PM IST
Venue: Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai.
SRH vs RR FULL SQUADS
Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (captain), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Priyam Garg, Abhishek Sharma, Abdul Samad, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul, T Natarajan, K Khaleel Ahmed, Sanjay Yadav, Prithvi Raj Yarra, Basil Thampi, Virat Singh, Fabian Allen, Billy Stanlake, Bavanaka Sandeep, Jason Holder, Vijay Shankar, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mohammad Nabi, Shreevats Goswami, Wriddhiman Saha
Rajasthan Royals: Robin Uthappa, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (wk), Steven Smith (captain), David Miller, Riyan Parag, Shreyas Gopal, Tom Curran, Jofra Archer, Jaydev Unadkat, Varun Aaron, Aniruddha Joshi, Manan Vohra, Ankit Rajpoot, Andrew Tye, Rahul Tewatia, Shashank Singh, Mahipal Lomror, Oshane Thomas, Mayank Markande, Anuj Rawat, Kartik Tyagi, Akash Singh