Ben Stokes
Sunrisers Hyderabad captain David Warner on Sunday opted to bat first at the Dubai International Stadium against Rajasthan Royals, who have brought in Ben Stokes in a desperate move to change their spiraling fate.
SRH have made only one change in their lineup - Vijay Shankar replaces Abdul Samad.
"We'll bat first. It's a nice wicket, we will need to make most of the powerplay overs, hopefully, things will go on nicely today. We have a lot of young legs in our team, the seniors take full responsibility," said Warner.
Since their Sharjah heroics at the start of the campaign, Rajasthan have lost all their four matches including their return-to-Sharjah tie against Delhi Capitals this week. In a bid to change fate, Stokes, who only on Saturday completed his quarantine and trained with the team, has been included in the lineup.
"We can hopefully rectify a few things today. We want to compete today. Looks like a used wicket, could slow down. We'll have to take some early wickets - Look he trained well and he's in today (Stokes). Two other changes as well. Stokes, Riyan Parag and Robin Uthappa are back. We'll need to keep moving forward, we have a good team and we need to compete," Smith said.
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Jos Buttler(w), Robin Uthappa, Sanju Samson, Steven Smith(c), Ben Stokes, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Kartik Tyagi, Varun Aaron
Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): David Warner(c), Jonny Bairstow(w), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Vijay Shankar, Priyam Garg, Abhishek Sharma, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed, T Natarajan
