IPL 2018: Each franchise's key battles for a spot in the starting XI

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Basil Thampi was one of the finds of IPL 2017

Siddarth Kaul vs Basil Thampi

The Sunrisers Hyderabad have a problem of plenty with their Indian bowlers. Two-time purple cap winner Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be leading the pack along with IPL sensation Sandeep Sharma. They are likely to field one more pacer in their starting 11, and there are two candidates vying for the role.

Siddarth Kaul was phenomenal for the Sunrisers last season, having bagged 16 wickets in just 10 games. He is a natural wicket taker, and the fact that the Sunrisers shelled out nearly INR 4 crores for the medium pacer shows their faith in him.

The winner of the 'Emerging player' laurel in IPL 2017, Basil Thampi will look to give stiff competition to Kaul for a place in the final XI. Thampi featured regularly for the Lions and bagged 11 scalps in his 12 games. He continued his form in the Duleep trophy as well and even got the opportunity of playing two games for India-A. He bagged three wickets in four balls for India-A against New Zealand, which triggered a Kiwi collapse. In the recently concluded Ranji trophy, Thampi bowled magnificently to help Kerala reach the quarter-finals. His consistent performances saw him get an India call-up in the recently foregone Sri Lanka T20 series.

It will certainly be unfortunate for any of these two to not make it to the playing XI!