Sunrisers and Royals look for fresh beginning after a forgettable IPL 2021

In the final contest of the opening round of IPL 2022 fixtures, Rajasthan Royals will be taking on the Sunrisers Hyderabad in their season opener. Both the teams had a forgetful 2021 with a bottom-two finish.

As a new dawn beckons, both the teams will be raring to put their past behind and start anew. Sunrisers’ new chapter will be beginning under their leader, Kane Williamson. What felt like a shocker to many, the Sunrisers retained the likes of two of their most promising youngsters, Umran Malik and Abdul Samad while letting go of their English power-hitters namely Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow.

Rajasthan Royals, on the contrary, will be bringing together a string of fresh faces as Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal’s inclusion will be bringing in a boatload of experience that can completely transform their chequered bowling unit, that has always been a major spot of bother for the Royals.

The Sunrisers have a strong overseas unit that will be starring the likes of their captain, Kane Williamson, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran and Marco Jansen. Pooran displayed some serious power-hitting flair against India and Marco Jansen’s well-knit bowling kept the Indian batters on their toes during the tour of South Africa. This would be a massive catalyst for the Sunrisers on the back of a season where their bowlers were smoked to every nook and cranny of the park.

Venue Watch:

For a change in venues, this will be the first IPL contest in 2022 that will be hosted by Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune. Contrary to the other surfaces in Mumbai, this stadium in Pune will be starring black soil, a factor that will make it irresistible for the spinners to try their luck. Despite the fact that the batters will hold sway, yet unlike red soil, black soil offers an additional tinge of turn that may balance the scales till a certain extent. The last T20 contest that was played here was way back during pre-COVID times in January 2020 when India took on Sri Lanka.

Squads:

Rajasthan Royals:

Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, R Ashwin, Trent Boult, Shimron Hetmyer, Devdutt Padikkal, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal, Riyan Parag, KC Cariappa, Navdeep Saini, Obed McCoy, Arunay Singh, Kuldeep Sen, Karun Nair, Dhruv Jurel, Tejas Baroka, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubham Garhwal, James Neesham, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rassie Van Der Dussen, Daryl Mitchell

Sunrisers Hyderabad:

Kane Williamson, Abdul Samad, Umran Malik, Washington Sundar, Nicholas Pooran, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Priyam Garg, Rahul Tripathi, Abhishek Sharma, Karik Tyagi, Shreyas Gopal, Jagadeesha Suchith, Aiden Markram, Marco Jansen, Romario Shepherd, Sean Abbott, R Samarth, Saurabh Dubey, Shashank Singh, Vishnu Vinod, Glenn Philips, Fazalhaq Farooqi

Match details:

Rajasthan Royals vs Sunrisers Hyderabad

Venue: Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune

Date: 29th March 2022

Time: 7:30 PM IST