IPL 2017: Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Gujarat Lions, 5 factors of winning

#2 With the ball

Kulkarni was exceptional for the Lions in the last season and will need to carry this bowling attack

Gujarat Lions would have gone back to the drawing board after their bowling came a cropper against Kolkata. They lacked confidence and despite the presence of two domestic veteran seamers, Praveen Kumar and Dhawal Kulkarni, they looked shoddy.

Their spin attack of Shadab Jakati and Shivil Kaushik did not have the control to subdue Lynn and Gambhir. They might want to retain Kaushik against Sunrisers, who do not exactly boast of exceptional players of spin. But Jakati needs to go.

They can think of giving James Faulkner a go ahead of one of Dwyane Smith or Aaron Finch, especially since both are batting out of position. Faulkner's slower variations could be needed against a power-packed batting line-up.

Sunrisers will rely on Ashish Nehra and Bhuvneshwar Kumar to start off well with the new ball. Nehra looked a tad rusty in the opener but a few overs in the nets should set that straight.

Ben Cutting adds a different dimension to their bowling attack with his lengths. Henriques and Rashid Khan are their stiflers. These two will look for the big wickets in the middle overs and also contain the scoring rate with their variations.

Hooda or Yuvraj could chip in if one of the bowlers has an off day. Sunrisers possess a complete bowling attack and it looks unlikely that they would run out of plans even if two of their top five bowlers get hit.