RCB have pieces to put puzzle together | IPL 2020 Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Royal Challengers Bangalore: SWOT Analysis

The Royal Challengers Bangalore again embark on a quest for their first IPL trophy and it begins this season with a match against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

The two teams have finished at the opposite ends of the points table in recent years. In the last three seasons, RCB finished eighth, sixth and eighth again. In that period, RCB’s southern rivals have ended in fourth, as runners-up and in fourth again. Will RCB finally get going after another year of chopping and churning of players and coaches or will a settled SRH unit cement its reputation as one of the strongest teams year after year?

Let's look at what the two teams have to offer.

The SWOT for SRH

Strengths: The opening pair of David Warner and Jonny Bairstow amazed last season. The pair put up an opening stand of 185 runs (an IPL record) in the match against RCB last year. In IPL 2019, the Aussie-English duo became the most prolific opening pair in a season by notching up 733 runs in nine innings.

Weaknesses: SRH have an average pace attack. On paper, some bowlers can bowl fast but there are only a few who could be labelled as genuine T20 pacers. Bhuvneshwar Kumar (winner of back-to-back Purple Caps in 2016 and 2017) and Khaleel Ahmed (19 wickets in 9 appearances last season) are the only viable options at Warner’s disposal. Sandeep Sharma, Siddharth Kaul, Basil Thampi, T Natarajan, Mitchell Marsh and Billy Stanlake are average T20 pacers. SRH could have problems in the death overs.

Opportunities: Teenager Abdul Samad is an exciting prospect for SRH. He loves to hit the ball hard and clean and treats Ranji Trophy matches like T20 contests. In the last Ranji season, Samad scored 592 runs at a strike rate of 112.97 hitting 36 sixes (the most by anyone in the season). In 11 T20 games, Samad averages 40.

Threats: SRH have an unusual threat of underutilising the talents, skills and captaincy of Kane Williamson through the course of the tournament. The balance of the team may force Warner to bench Williamson for most of the matches. In 2018, when Warner was absent, Williamson finished as the top scorer in the league with 735 runs at an average of 52.5 hitting five fifties in the process.

The SWOT for RCB

Strengths: RCB boast of some of the best overseas players in important roles. Sample this: Aaron Finch (opener), AB de Villiers (middle-order batsman), Moeen Ali, Isuru Udana, Chris Morris (all-rounders), Dale Steyn, Adam Zampa (bowlers). These players lend a nice balance to RCB’s squad and the young players in the camp should benefit from the outside experience.

Weaknesses: If RCB play Navdeep Saini, Umesh Yadav and Chris Morris as frontline pacers, then the bowling attack will be weak in the death overs. This could prove fatal in close matches.

Opportunities: A big opportunity for 20-year-old Devdutt Padikkal. The left-hand batsman has the game tailor-made for T20s. He finished as the top-scorer in the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy and the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy last season. His batting stats from a small sample size are stunning. In 12 T20 games, the batsman has hammered 580 runs at a strike rate of 175.75 at an average of 64.44 with a highest score of 122*.

Threats: The team are over-reliant on Virat Kohli and de Villiers to deliver in every match every single season. If those two don’t get going, then RCB’s campaign will fizzle out early yet again.

Head to head (including Champions League):

Matches played: 15

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 8

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 6

No Result: 1

Last five IPL matches (most recent first):

SRH: L-L-T-W-L

RCB: W-NR-L-W-W

Ground conditions

Expect a very warm day with hazy sunshine. The mercury could hover around 32 degrees Celsius in the evening with a humidity of 62%.

Deccan Herald's Dream XI

David Warner, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers (wk), Shivam Dube, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Yuzvendra Chahal, Khaleel Ahmed

Team news

No major injury or health concerns reported for the two teams. So, we could see the strongest XIs starting for both teams.

Impact player for SRH

Mohammad Nabi: The Afghan all-rounder has 267 wickets and more than 4,000 runs in his T20 career. He had a pretty good outing in the recently concluded Caribbean Premier League in which he scalped 12 wickets, including his career-best figures of 5/15.

Impact player for RCB

Yuzvendra Chahal: In 84 IPL matches, Yuzvendra Chahal has 100 wickets to his name at an average of 23.18. On spin-friendly tracks in the UAE, Chahal could be the game-changer for RCB.

Betting odds (bet365)

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 8/11

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 11/10

How to watch the match

The match will be broadcast live on the Star Sports network. Online viewers can catch all the action on Disney+Hotstar. The match begins at 7.30 PM IST.