Pat Cummins, back in the captain’s role for Sunrisers Hyderabad and making his first appearance in a competitive match since the Adelaide Ashes Test in mid-December, won the toss and opted to bowl first against Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur.
This was SRH’s opening toss victory of the season, with stand-in skipper Ishan Kishan having lost each of the seven tosses he participated in earlier.
Cummins returned to the playing XI for Sunrisers Hyderabad, bringing Dilshan Madushanka into the outside as part of two bowling changes. Seamer Praful Hinge also came back into the squad in place of left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey. Hinge had previously produced a match-defining four-wicket haul on his IPL debut in the reverse encounter at Hyderabad.
In the same vein, both sides adjusted their balance by dropping a spinner for an additional seamer. For Rajasthan Royals, Tushar Deshpande replaced legspinner Ravi Bishnoi, who was instead sent to the Impact Player bench.
For SRH, Travis Head begins the match among the substitutes and is expected to be introduced as an Impact Player when the chase gets underway.
With both franchises pushing for a place in the top four, the context matters: Rajasthan Royals have accumulated ten points from their first seven matches, while Sunrisers Hyderabad are on eight points from seven games.
Rajasthan Royals XI
- Yashasvi Jaiswal
- Vaibhav Sooryavanshi
- Dhruv Jurel (wk)
- Riyan Parag (capt)
- Shimron Hetmyer
- Donovan Ferreira
- Ravindra Jadeja
- Jofra Archer
- Tushar Deshpande
- Nandre Burger
- Brijesh Sharma
Rajasthan Royals Impact Subs bench
- Ravi Bishnoi
- Lhuan-dre Pretorius
- Ravi Singh
- Sandeep Sharma
- Shubham Dubey
Sunrisers Hyderabad XI
- Abhishek Sharma
- Ishan Kishan
- Heinrich Klaasen
- Salil Arora (wk)
- Aniket Verma
- Nitish Kumar Reddy
- Pat Cummins (capt)
- Shivang Kumar
- Sakib Hussain
- Praful Hinge
- Eshan Malinga
Sunrisers Hyderabad Impact Subs bench
- Smaran R
- Travis Head
- Liam Livingstone
- Harsh Dubey
- Harshal Patel
