Rajasthan Royals vs Sunrisers Hyderabad Playing 11 IPL: Team News, players to watch out for

The playoffs race is heating up in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 as all eight teams still stand a chance to make it to the knockout stages. Rajasthan Royals (RR), who kept their playoffs hopes alive by defeating Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday, will look to make two wins in a row and move closer to a spot in the playoffs when they lock horns with Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Saturday.

Rajasthan Royals once again saw youngster Riyan Parag rise to the occasion as he played a crucial knock to help his side beat Kolkata Knight Riders by three wickets at the Eden Gardens. Rajasthan have 8 points from eleven games and need to win their remaining three matches to stay afloat in the competition. Their bench strength will be put to test against SRH as the Steve Smith-led side have already lost a host of overseas stars, who were first-team players.

Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer have all departed home to join the England squad ahead of the Pakistan ODI series. Smith is also set to leave on Wednesday after his side’s encounter with Royal Challengers Bangalore. It will be interesting to see how Rajasthan cope up with the absences of the likes of Stokes, Archer and Buttler as they look to bag few more wins under Smith.

Sunrisers Hyderabad will also miss the services of their star opener Jonny Bairstow, who left for England after the team’s loss against Chennai Super Kings on Tuesday. However, they have received a massive boost ahead of the game as Kane Williamson is back to India and will lead the side against Rajasthan on Saturday.

David Warner is likely to open the innings with Martin Guptill, who is yet to feature for SRH this season. Shreevats Goswami and Wriddhiman Saha are the other two options at the top. Apart from Bairstow, Sunrisers have their squad intact and will look to enhance their chances of making it to the playoffs with a win against RR.

Here are the players to watch out for in RR vs SRH game:

David Warner – The left-hand opener has been in destructive form for Sunrisers this season. He is the leading run-getter this season with a staggering 574 runs from 10 games at an average of over 71. Warner has scored 5 successive half-centuries and will look to break the record for most consecutive half-centuries scored in the IPL when he takes the field against Rajasthan on Saturday.

Ajinkya Rahane – After struggling to find his rhythm at the start of the season, Rahan has roared back to form and has looked in great touch in the last couple of games. He scored an unbeaten 105 against Delhi Capitals and followed it up with a quickfire 34 against KKR on Thursday. He will be crucial to RR’s chances against SRH on Saturday.

Rashid Khan – The Afghan ace might have accounted for only 10 wickets in 10 games for SRH this season but he remains a key bowler for the Williamson-led side. Rashid has bowled at a brilliant economy of 6.15 this season and has been effective in containing runs against the best of batsmen.

Here are the predicted playing XIs of the two teams:

Rajasthan Royals: Ajinkya Rahane, Sanju Samson(w), Steven Smith(c), Riyan Parag, Stuart Binny, Ashton Turner, Shreyas Gopal, Ish Sodhi, Jaydev Unadkat, Oshane Thomas, Varun Aaron

Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner, Wriddhiman Saha/Shreevats Goswami, Kane Williamson (c), Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Shakib Al Hasan, Deepak Hooda, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, K Khaleel Ahmed