IPL 2016, SRH Vs KKR Playing 11: List of today's Probable XIs for Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Kolkata Knight Riders

On the first double-header game day this VIVO IPL 2016, match no.8 will see the Sunrisers Hyderabad taking on double-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders for the first match of the double-header. After receiving a sound thrashing at the hands of the Royal Challengers Bangalore in their very first match of the season, the injury-plagued Sunrisers Hyderabad will be looking to get back onto winning ways, but without the leadership and experience of Ashish Nehra who injured himself during the course of the game.

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Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Kolkata Knight Riders Head to Head in IPL

Total Match Played : 6

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Won : 4, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) Won : 2

Kolkata Knight Riders – SunRisers Hyderabad Head to Head Stats in IPL T20
Date	Venue	Winning Team	Margin of Victory
14/04/2013	Eden Gardens, Kolkata	KKR	48 Runs
19/05/2013	Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Hyderabad	SRH	5 Wickets
18/05/2014	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad	KKR	7 Wickets
24/05/2014	Eden Gardens, Kolkata	KKR	4 Wickets
22/04/2015	ACA-VDCA Stadium, Visakhapatnam	SRH	16 Runs
4/05/2015	Eden Gardens, Kolkata	KKR	38 Runs

Prior to the start of the tournament, Sunrisers lost two of their key players in Yuvraj SIngh and Kane Williamson, and Ashish Nehra’s injury will be a major setback for them, with him set to miss atleast the next two games.

Against RCB’s potent batting line-up, only Mustafizur Rahman seemed to be able to contain the batsmen with his clever pace variations, while all the other bowlers went for above 10 RPO. Having reserved Nehra for the fag-end, his injury meant the use of part-timer Ashish Reddy. However, this proved very costly as the Hyderabad lad was smashed all over the park, and went for 25 runs off his 1.5 overs.

Set a mammoth target of 228 to chase, David Warner got them off to a perfect start. Apart from him though, none of the other batsmen scripted their innings well, and the run-rate kept going out of reach. Once Warner fell in the 9th over, it seemed all over for the Sunrisers. Even a late flourish from all-rounders Karn Sharma and Ashish Reddy was not enough to stop RCB from stacking up points in their favour on the points table.

Kolkata on the other hand, will be severely disappointed with the way they gave away the game to the Mumbai Indians. After imposing fifties from in-form Gautam Gambhir and Manish Pandey with some fireworks at the end from the blade of Andre Russell, KKR posted a healthy total of 187 on the board.

Considering MI’s poor performance with the bat against Pune and their own bowling performance against DD, Kolkata would have fancied themselves a second consecutive win this season. However, fate had something else in store for KKR.

Mumbai Indians, led by a well-crafted 84* from skipper Rohit Sharma scaled the target with 5 balls to spare, with able support from Mitchell McClenaghan and Jos Buttler. After a morale-boosting victory over DD, KKR were scorched by the way MI hunted down the target with ease.

Following losses for both teams, SRH and KKR will face off against each other, and it will be interesting too see how the teams line-up. Here,we try to predict how the squads might turn out to be.

Sunrisers Hyderabad Squad :

The Sunrisers will have to make a forced change in the squad, with lead seamer Ashish Nehra ruled out. Replacing his experience will not be any easy task, and is not the only problem for Sunrisers, with almost 4-5 pacers warming the benches. With Trent Boult and Brainder Sran waiting in the wings, Sran might just get the nod ahead of Boult, with Henriques, Morgan and Warner keeping their places.

However, with Moises Henriques not performing last game with bat or ball, he could be replaced by Boult, while opting for a local batting talent like Aditya Tare or Tirumalasetti Suman to replace Ashish Nehra. Considering Henriques all-round abilities and the previous match being only the first, Sran is most likely to get the nod with Henriques retaining his place.

Kolkata Knight Riders :

In big news, Gambhir has reportedly played ‘coy’ over playing Sunil Narine, while admitting to the fact that playing Narine and Hogg in the same squad is a dream come true for any captain of the squad.

With the bowling going for runs last match, Narine is in all probability going to feature in the main XI, which means either Munro or Hogg/Hastings will have to sit out. With Hastings consistent in the last two matches, he seems a contender for a foreign spot in the XI.

Although Munro is known for his big hitting abilities, he has not played a major role in the past two matches, which could tempt KKR to rest him and get Sunil Narine in his place. This could also mean opting for Umesh Yadav over Kuldeep Yadav, with spin taken care of by the experienced trio of Chawla, Hogg and Narine.

However, it will be the captain and team’s call at the end of it. Interesting fact is to see if Narine plays, and if he does, who he replaces.

Teams (Predicted XI) :

Sunrisers Hyderabad :

David Warner (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Moises Henriques, Naman Ojha (wk), Deepak Hooda, Eoin Morgan, Ashish Reddy, Karn Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mustafizur Rahman, Barinder Sran.

Kolkata Knight Riders :

Gautam Gambhir (Captain), Robin Uthappa (wk), Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Yusuf Pathan, Andre Russell, Piyush Chawla, Sunil Narine, John Hastings, Brad Hogg, Umesh Yadav.