The third match of IPL 2020 will see a star-studded team taking on not so high-profile side. Interestingly while the former has yet to won an IPL title, the latter has been a consistently good performer. Royal Challengers Bangalore will face Sunrisers Hyderabad in the third IPL 2020 match on September 21.
Chahal to handle Warner
The duel between David Warner and Yuzvendra Chahal will be an interesting one to watch. Warner has not been in a great form. In recent times, he finds difficulty to play spin bowling. On the other hand, on the UAE surface Yuzvendra Chahal is going to be the biggest weapon of Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore. Warner has been an asset of Sunrisers Hyderabad for long. How he handles Chahal and manages to give a solid opening to SRH along with Jonny Bairstow will set the tone for his side. For Chahal, the task is to quickly remove the famous SRH opening pair.
Kohli’s reputation
Virat Kohli is 20 runs away to surpass Shane Watson (523 runs) to become the leading run-getter against the Hyderabad franchise in the history of IPL. He also has stunning records against Hyderabad- best combination of average and strikes rate – 45.82 and 142.87, 504 runs in 14 matches. But since 2018, his form has dropped against SRH. As the main batsman of Royal Challengers Bangalore, he must start the campaign on a bright note. Moreover, he will be hitting the ground after a long pause like others. As he eyes the maiden RCB IPL title, he has to give his best from the beginning.
SRH bowling duo
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rashid Khan will have the onus of delivering for the SRH bowling unit. Rashid Khan’s average T20 bowling impact might have fallen over the last few years, his economy of 5.6 in the UAE is the second-best since his debut. Rashid Khan was also effective against Virat Kohli and ABDV. In the last two seasons, Kumar picked up nine and 13 wickets at an average of 39.33 and 35.66 respectively. Considering Kumar’s overall IPL record and Khan’s T20 presence how these two lead the attack will be interesting to see.
SRH middle order
The middle order of Sunrisers Hyderabad is their biggest concern. They will have to rely on Manish Pandey heavily yet again. The young Indian talents will try to make the best of chance. But a lack of experience might be an obstacle here. So once the top order collapse, Manish Pandey has to take care of the middle order almost singlehandedly. This could be a challenge.
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