Two teams in great form - Gujarat Titans (GT) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) - face off against each other during their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Wednesday, April 27. The Titans currently lead the pack with 12 points, but chasing them closely is SRH, who, after two losses at the start of the season, have won five games straight to move to second on 10 points.
Gujarat easily mustered a win over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their last match, while SRH produced one of their finest performances ever after defeating the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by nine wickets in their previous fixture.
As a matter of fact, GT have lost only one match this season, against Sunrisers in their earlier meeting. Their skipper Hardik Pandya will be looking for revenge for that defeat. A concern for the Titans is their Powerplay batting. Shubman Gill, who has 207 from seven games, has gone off the boil after his 96, while Wriddhiman Saha, replacing Matthew Wade, has been downright mediocre.
But they will rely heavily on their bowling attack. Mohammed Shami's 10 wickets from seven games and New Zealand pacer Lockie Ferguson's nine wickets from seven games has helped them close out a lot of games. They are also ably supported by Rashid Khan, who has eight wickets in seven games this season.
Given the strength of the GT batting unit, led by skipper Pandya upfront, SRH's bowlers will need to come to the party soon like they have been in every match this season.
Their best bowler has been T Natarajan, who has 15 wickets this season. However, guiding the team in the powerplay overs is the lanky South African Marco Jansen, who has six wickets in five games. This includes the wickets of Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli in the last match, so his contributions might as well decide the outcome of the match.
All eyes will also be on Jammu and Kashmir's star pacer, Umran Malik. He has 10 wickets this season and regularly bowls at a speed of 150+. The experience of Bhuvneshwar Kumar (nine wickets from seven games) will come in handy as well.
The Titans' bowling attack can catch the SRH batters off-guard given their inexperience at the top. Young Abhishek Sharma - who has scored 220 runs - hasn't been tested a lot, while No.3 batter Rahul Tripathi has been doing a lot of the scoring when SRH are chasing games.
If Titans could breach through the Sunrisers' top-order, the middle-order batters including the dangerous Nicholas Pooran who haven't yet got a decent hit in the middle could fall under the pressure.
A win for either side will take them closer to the playoffs and this will act as a major boost for players in both teams to perform at their best
Gujarat Titans Squad
Hardik Pandya (c), Abhinav Manohar, David Miller, Gurkeerat Singh, B Sai Sudarshan, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Matthew Wade, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Wriddhiman Saha, Alzarri Joseph, Darshan Nalkande, Dominic Drakes, Jayant Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Mohammed Shami, Noor Ahmad, Pradeep Sangwan, Rashid Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Varun Aaron, Yash Dayal.
Sunrisers Hyderabad squad
Kane Williamson, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nicholos Pooran, Abdul Samad, Priyam Garg, Vishnu Vinod, Glenn Phillips, R Samarth, Shashank Singh, Romario Shepherd, Marco Jansen, J Suchith, Shreyas Gopal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sean Abbott, Kartik Tyagi, Saurabh Tiwary, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Umran Malik, T Natarajan.
