Battle of pace aces: It's Ferguson vs Umran as Titans face stern Sunrisers test

The speed gun radar will be functioning overtime when Lockie Ferguson's 150-click thunderbolts meet their match in rising pace sensation Umran Malik's toe-crushers as table-toppers the Gujarat Titans clash with the close-on-their-heels Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL on Wednesday.

The IPL newcomers are currently in the midst of a dream inception year with six wins from seven games at the halfway stage and are placed on top of the table.

Interestingly, the only loss that Titans suffered in its campaign so far was against the Sunrisers in an earlier meeting and Hardik Pandya wouldn't mind sweet revenge for that defeat.

However, the 'Orange Army's bowling attack especially their four-prong fast bowling unit has been exceptional as one saw when they demolished RCB for 68 in their previous encounter.

The disconcerting bounce and movement created by Marco Jansen (6 wickets from 5 games) are ably complemented by Umran's (10 wickets from 7 games) fiery pace, T Natarajan's (15 from 7 games) deceptions off the track, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (9 from 7 games) balancing it all with his experience.

The attack has been so good that a lightweight spin department manned by left-arm spinner Jagadeesha Suchith, in the absence of an injured Washington Sundar, until now hasn't been a cause of worry for Kane Williamson.

In fact, the rub of the green has gone SRH's way in this particular season as they now have five consecutive wins from five games where they have chased targets after the bowlers intimidated the rival batting unit.

For Pandya though, his bowling unit is no inferior to SRH as Mohammad Shami's artistry (10 from 7 games) and Ferguson's (9 wickets from 7 games) aggression have brought them a lot of success, not to forget Rashid Khan's (8 wickets from 7 games) ability to be more than decent even in a quiet year by his standards.

However, one area where the Titans need to lift their game is Powerplay batting as Shubman Gill (207 from 7 games) has gone off the boil after his 96 and Wriddhiman Saha, replacing Matthew Wade, has been downright mediocre.

In fact, Saha's propensity to waste balls upfront (dismal SR of 83 in 2 games) in both the matches that he played so far has forced skipper Pandya (295 from 6 games) and David Miller (220 from 7 games) to up the ante even before they can take some time to play themselves in.

The chink in the Titans' armoury is not having a quality keeper-batter for the format as Wade hasn't really had a great time in the first five games that he got and Saha has always been a player who takes time to settle down before he can play some shots.

There is Afghanistan's Rahmanullah Gurbaz in the set-up but in order to play him, Titans would have to sacrifice a potent pace bowling option like West Indies pacer Alzarri Joseph, which won't be the wisest thing to do.

Abhinav Manohar and Rahul Tewatia would also like to be more consistent in the finishers' roles rather than being like a flash in the pan for a match or two.

However, the Titans' bowling attack has the ability to catch the SRH batting unit off guard considering that it hasn't been tested a lot with young Abhishek Sharma (220 in 7 games) and number three batter Rahul Tripathi (212 from 7 games) doing the bulk of the scoring in easy chases.

If the Titans could breach the Sunrisers' top order, most of the middle-order batters - including the dangerous Nicholas Pooran - haven't yet got a decent hit in the middle and the rustiness under pressure could keep Gujarat interested.

If they manage to upset SRH's rhythm, it will take them closer to the play-offs in their maiden year in the championship, no mean achievement in a competition of this class.

The squads:

Gujarat Titans: Hardik Pandya (captain), Abhinav Manohar, David Miller, Gurkeerat Singh, B Sai Sudarshan, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Matthew Wade, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Wriddhiman Saha, Alzarri Joseph, Darshan Nalkande, Dominic Drakes, Jayant Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Mohammad Shami, Noor Ahmad, Pradeep Sangwan, Rashid Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Varun Aaron, Yash Dayal.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson (captain), Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nicholos Pooran, Abdul Samad, Priyam Garg, Vishnu Vinod, Glenn Phillips, R Samarth, Shashank Singh, Romario Shepherd, Marco Jansen, J Suchith, Shreyas Gopal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sean Abbott, Kartik Tyagi, Saurabh Tiwary, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Umran Malik, T Natarajan.

Match start time: 7.30 pm IST.