SRH lost their previous match to RR by 61 runs. To be honest, that lead was only reduced by a final swing from Washington Sundar, otherwise it could have been closer to 80-90 runs. That’s a massive loss and shows the kind of problems that exist in the batting lineup. Abhishek Sharma doesn’t seem like the best option for opening the batting, but at least Kane Williamson is a reliable player. Even Rahul Tripathi is an excellent IPL player and one bad inning is not enough to make him resign. Then there’s Nicholas Pooran. He’s someone who has performed brilliantly at international level and seems to be the ideal IPL player, but his record just isn’t good enough. He started with another duck in the previous game and will be under some pressure. Aiden Markram, Abdul Samad and Romario Shepherd all offer serious depth on paper. Will that potential translate into performance or will it be another false start? We also saw SRH struggle a lot with his bowling in the previous game. Natarajan made a lot of runs and the fifth bowler in charge shared between Washington Sundar and Abhishek Sharma also went for over 60 runs. Both Sundar and Natarajan need to get their act together quickly or SRH will find it difficult to keep runs down. The team is better than before and you shouldn’t just write that off.
The Punjab Kings lost early wickets against the Kolkata Knight Riders in their previous game and ended up losing too many wickets. They’ve shown a lot of intent along the way, and we think we can expect a few games where such an approach backfires. On paper PBKS has a very solid batting lineup. Mayank Aggarwal and Shikhar Dhawan form the opening pair, followed by the hugely impressive Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Liam Livingstone and the big hitters. Raj Bawa has found life in the IPL a bit difficult and there are still some question marks over the temperaments of Shahrukh Khan and Odean Smith. PBKS hasn’t had many runs from its opening duo so far and Liam Livingstone is also lacking runs in the IPL. The batting lineup has a lot of potential but hasn’t been able to deliver it so far. As a bettor, you should be wary of how much you trust what a team can do rather than what they actually do. The bowling attack for PBKS is led by Kagiso Rabada. The South African pacesetter has had a brilliant season in the IPL over the past couple of seasons and there’s no reason to expect anything different from him this time. Backup bowling is once again a bit questionable. Odean Smith is a dangerous hitter, but his bowling is ordinary and can get quite expensive. Arshdeep Singh didn’t have the success we’ve come to expect from him either. Again, this could be due to the better face that IPL 2022 will be played on. Rahul Chahar is a great bowler, but Harpreet Brar isn’t. PBKS also has a number of holes that it needs to plug.
