NEW DELHI: Time is running out for SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH), who have managed just one win in the first half of the Indian Premier League. They face Mumbai Indians (MI) here at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday.
After seven matches, they have two points and are placed at the bottom of the points table.
While nothing seems to be going right for the Hyderabad franchise, MI seem to have overcome inconsistency in the initial phase of the tournament they played in Chennai and taken to the Ferozeshah Kotla pitch as duck to water.
Their batsmen, especially power-hitters like Kieron Pollard, are back among big runs. Their openers Quinton de Kock and skipper Rohit Sharma too are looking fluent.
They start favourites against SRH who are facing problems on more than one front.
SRH witnessed a change in captaincy ahead of the sixth game on Sunday. More surprisingly their regular skipper and opener David Warner wasn't just stripped of the leadership role but also dropped from the playing eleven.
Under Kane Williamson, their bowling came a cropper on a good batting surface against Jos Buttler, who hammered a big century.
MI will present an even bigger challenge. They may decide to recall Jason Holder in place of Afghan spin bowling all-rounder Mohammed Nabi, considering that their pace bowling looks a bit shaky. Nabi was picked in place of Warner and although he managed a few lusty blows, he was expensive in the only over he bowled.
MI's bowling too will be a challenge for the SRH batting that has plenty of holes in the middle-order.
Squads:
SunRisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson (captain), David Warner, Abhishek Sharma, Basil Thampi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jonny Bairstow (wicketkeeper), Manish Pandey, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Shreevats Goswami, Siddharth Kaul, Khaleel Ahmed, Vijay Shankar, Wriddhiman Saha (wicketkeeper), Abdul Samad, Jason Roy, Jason Holder, Priyam Garg, Virat Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Mujeeb ur Rehman, J Suchith.
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (captain), Adam Milne, Aditya Tare, Anmolpreet Singh, Anukul Roy, Arjun Tendulkar, Chris Lynn, Dhawal Kulkarni, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), James Neesham, Jasprit Bumrah, Jayant Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Marco Jansen, Mohsin Khan, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Piyush Chawla, Quinton De Kock (wicketkeeper), Rahul Chahar, Saurabh Tiwary, Suryakumar Yadav, Trent Boult, Yudhvir Singh.