Big picture: Sunrisers searching for their first win
Sunrisers Hyderabad went to Lucknow buoyed by the arrival of the South African part of their contingent. They had all the plans in place: play only three overseas players if batting first, bring in Heinrich Klaasen if struggling with the bat or go for big Marco Jansen when bowling. However, they got blindsided on a pitch designed to neutralise their pace attack.
Sunrisers will come back to the more familiar environs of Hyderabad with two defeats in two matches, and up against them will be a team with two wins in two matches. Punjab Kings have won two without their full complement with Liam Livingstone's arrival delayed and Kagiso Rabada having only just arrived.
Kings' game seems simple: captain Shikhar Dhawan to anchor if needed, and others around him go big. There are two allrounders already in the squad, and Nathan Ellis cannot be the straightforward exclusion for Rabada after his five wickets in two matches. Sunrisers are facing an opposition on a roll, and it will take something special to get on board on Sunday.
Team news: Will Rabada play?
Livingstone is still awaiting clearance from the ECB. He has not played any formal cricket since he jarred his knee on Test debut in Pakistan in December. However, apart from that they have good news: Bhanuka Rajapaksa didn't break anything when a hit from Dhawan made him retire-hurt during Kings' last match. Rabada is available but will they leave out Ellis for him?
Harry Brook has not made the breathtaking start expected of him at the IPL. He has scored 16 off 25 in his two outings, but Sunrisers should back him.
Toss and Impact Player strategy
Sunrisers Hyderabad
In Lucknow, Sunrisers named one of the rare XIs with only three overseas players, ready to bring in an overseas bowler for a specialist Indian batter. That should stay the plan should they bat first.
Probable bat-first XI: 1 Anmolpreet Singh (wk), 2 Mayank Agarwal, 3 Rahul Tripathi, 4 Aiden Markram (capt.), 5 Harry Brook, 6 Abdul Samad, 7 Washington Sundar, 8 Adil Rashid, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Umran Malik, 11 T Natarajan
Probable field-first XI: 1 Anmolpreet Singh (wk), 2 Rahul Tripathi, 3 Aiden Markram (capt.), 4 Harry Brook, 5 Abdul Samad, 6 Washington Sundar, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Adil Rashid, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Umran Malik, 11 T Natarajan
Punjab Kings
They haven't yet had to bowl first, but if they do, they are likely to start with Rishi Dhawan and substitute him out for opening batter Prabhsimran Singh.
Probable bat-first XI: 1 Prabhsimran Singh, 2 Shikhar Dhawan (capt.), 3 Bhanuka Rajapaksa, 4 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 5 Sikandar Raza, 6 Sam Curran, 7 M Shahrukh Khan, 8 Nathan Ellis, 9 Harpreet Brar, 10 Rahul Chahar, 11 Arshdeep Singh
Probable field-first XI: 1 Prabhsimran Singh, 2 Shikhar Dhawan (capt.), 3 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 4 Sikandar Raza, 5 Sam Curran, 6 M Shahrukh Khan, 7 Harpreet Brar, 8 Rishi Dhawan, 9 Nathan Ellis, 10 Rahul Chahar, 11 Arshdeep Singh
Stats that matter: Agarwal in need of IPL runs
This has been a close rivalry over the last five years with the sides winning five each, but in Hyderabad, Sunrisers have won six out of seven matches against Kings.
This is the fourth consecutive season that Sunrisers have started with two losses in a row. However, the two titles that the franchise has won in T20 cricket have come after losing the first two matches: the IPL in 2016, and the inaugural SA20.
Mayank Agarwal's golden phase of 2019 to 2021 is well and truly behind him. Since then he has averaged 16.5 with a strike-rate of 121.57. The numbers between 2019 and 2021 were 34.2 and 146.15.
