SRH eyes second win as they take on sturdy DC | IPL 2021 Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Delhi Capitals: SWOT Analysis

SunRisers Hyderabad would look to add one more win as they take on confident Delhi Capitals in Match 20 of IPL 2021. Here is the analysis of the two teams:

SWOT for SRH

Strengths: SRH is blessed with good bowling resources. Abhishek Sharma made a comeback with two wickets. Khaleel Ahmed is a like-for-like replacement for T Natrajan. Siddharth Kaul was preferred over Sandeep Sharma and justified his selection by picking a wicket. Sandeep is a very good bowler. Vijay Shankar could deliver an over or two as a fifth bowler. And then Warner always has the two trusted bowlers, Rashid Khan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Jason Holder and Mohammed Nabi, who got games to play early in the season, were also amongst wickets.

Weaknesses: Batting had let SRH down in its first three losses. There have been just four fifties recorded by the players this season and two of those fifties came from Jonny Bairstow’s bat. The bowlers seem to have worked out a plan to send Warner back to the dugout early this season. The middle order comprising Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar and Abdul Samad do not have much promise. In the previous match, Warner fit in Vijay Shankar, Virat Singh, Abhishek Sharma and Kedar Jadhav in the middle order. However, they remained untested.

Opportunities: Kane Williamson is finally back in the orange jersey. There was clamour over Williamsons’ absence, but with him being fit, it is time for him to deliver with the bat and bring in the much-needed solidity in SRH’s fragile middle-order.

Threats: Injuries always seem to be an area of concern for the team. Last season, the team lost Mitchell Marsh and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, followed by a niggle for Wriddhiman Saha during the late stages. The team has already missed Kane Williamson due to injury for its first three losses this year. Now T Natrajan, who has become one of the key bowlers for the team has also been ruled out. They have had a slow start already, losing their first three matches. Any more injuries at this stage could be disastrous. The team should also be careful about making too many frequent changes in the playing XI. SRH has made the most changes in its playing XI this season.

SWOT for DC

Strengths: DC’s strength is its batting. Of the three matches that the team has won, they have chased with ease. The only match they lost, they were defending a total. The team has chased targets of 195 and 188 against PBKS and CSK respectively with relative ease. Then, on a slow track of Chennai, where KKR and SRH had dramatic collapses, DC showed patience to adapt to the condition and stayed on the winning side in a tricky chase. The likes of Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant are all capable of doing wonders.

Weaknesses: Unlike last season, when DC had a settled bowling attack with Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel doing bulk of bowling, this time around, the bowling looks a tad unsettled. Anrich Nortje has not started a single match so far this year. Lukman Meriwala played one game and bowled just 3 overs. Ashwin has picked just 1 wicket. Tom Curran played two matches and bowled nearly 8 overs before being benched. Rishabh Pant needs to have a clear idea of who his five front-line bowlers are.

Opportunities: Back in the playing XI for DC against MI, Amit Mishra picked the wickets of MI’s big guns like Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard. His efforts were duly acknowledged with a Player of the Match award. Mishra is very likely to retain his spot in the team. And if form is anything to go by, then Mishra could very well end up overtaking Lasith Malinga as the league’s all-time leading wicket taker. Currently with 164 scalps, Mishra is just 6 wickets behind the Sri Lankan pacer.

Threats: The head-to-head record shows that DC have not enjoyed playing against SRH. If the numbers are to be believed, then DC will be having a tough time against SRH.

Head-to-Head

Matches played: 18

SunRisers Hyderabad: 11

Delhi Capitals: 7

Form Guide (last five matches)

SRH: W-L-L-L-W

DC: W-W-L-W-L

Team News

In a big blow for SRH, team’s left-arm pacer T Natrajan has been ruled out for the rest of the season due to a knee injury. The team has not announced any replacement for Natrajan yet. Axar Patel has recovered from Covid-19 and has joined the team’s bio-bubble in Chennai. However, his immediate participation remains uncertain. Ishant Sharma too has been declared fit by DC’s head coach Ricky Ponting.

Deccan Herald’s Dream XI

Shikhar Dhawan, David Warner, Kane Williamson, Rishabh Pant (wk), Lalit Yadav, Abhishek Sharma, Rashid Khan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Amit Mishra

Impact player for SRH

Jonny Bairstow: Last season, Jonny Bairstow hit a blistering fifty against DC. Coming into this match, Bairstow has already hit 2 fifties and is averaging 57.66. Moreover, the conditions of a pitch don’t often dictate how Baristow is going to bat. If Bairstow is feeling good then he will take apart any bowler on any kind of pitch. If Bairstow gets going then it would be a huge relief for David Warner, who at the moment, is looking a bit out of touch himself.

Impact player for DC

Shikhar Dhawan: With 231 runs, Shikhar Dhawan is at the top of the run-scoring charts this season. He has notched two fifties in the process and is hitting the ball at a strike rate of 148.07. But it is just not brute batting that which is making Dhawan stand out this season. On a slow Chennai pitch against MI, Dhawan curbed his attacking instincts and scored 45 runs from 42 balls to guide his side in the chase. Dhawan’s innings are releasing all the pressure from the middle-order which is still looking a bit shaky.