Sunrisers Hyderabad will be looking to upset the table toppers, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, as they take on the defending champions in their final league stage game before the IPL 2026 playoffs. The last time the two sides met was in the tournament opener earlier in March, where SRH, led by Ishan Kishan, were handed a 6-wicket defeat by Rajat Patidar and co.
Revenge will be on the minds of Pat Cummins and co. who will be entering the contest on Friday with an unchanged playing XI. After all, SRH have found the right team combination in the latter half of the tournament and will not want to tinker with that.
Predicted Sunrisers Hyderabad playing XI vs RCB
Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Salil Arora, Smaran Ravichandran, Pat Cummins (c), Shivang Kumar, Eshan Malinga, Sakib Hussain
Impact player: Praful Hinge
SRH openers Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma will want to go all guns blazing against RCB. But the batters face a threat in the form of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who has been in top form with the new ball this season. Abhishek has managed just 14 runs off 11 balls at a strike-rate of 127.27 against Bhuvi. Although he has over 500 runs to his name in IPL 2026, he needs to cautiously wade through the threat in the first six overs. His opening partner, Head, hasn’t had the best of the season, having scored just 367 runs from 13 games. He has scored just two fifties in this season and has struggled to convert good starts into big knocks.
Ishan Kishan has been SRH’s second-best batter in IPL 2026, while Heinrich Klaasen is the leading run-getter for the side with 555 runs to his name. Should the opening duo of Travishek fail, then SRH will be heavily dependent on these two to score the bulk of the runs for the team. Therefore, the performances of the top four will be extremely important for SRH.
The pace unit will be spearheaded by captain Cummins and will comprise Malinga, Hussain, and Hinge. Praful and Sakib have had an outstanding maiden IPL season thus far and have impressed with their ability to bowl well, particularly in the death overs. Hinge could be used as an impact player in the game against RCB. Sakib has 14 wickets from 9 matches and has conceded 314 runs from the 34 overs that he has bowled. Meanwhile, Malinga is the leading wicket-taker for the side in this season, with 17 wickets from 13 matches.
Nitish Kumar Reddy will also come of good use in Hyderabad, although he might not be needed to bowl his full quota. Shivang will be the lone specialist spinner in the side, given that the surface at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium favours the batters heavily and that since a run-fest is on the cards.
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