Is Aiden Markram playing today's SRH vs RR, Qualifier 2 of IPL 2024

South African batter Aiden Markram returned to the SunRisers Hyderabad's (SRH) playing XI for their Qualifier 2 clash of IPL 2024 against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Friday, May 24. The match is being played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

Markram featured in the first nine games of the season for Hyderabad. However, the former SRH skipper was dropped following a string of underwhelming performances.

The 2016 champions have brought the right-handed batter back for the crucial Qualifier 2 as they look to win the knockout fixture and book a spot in the IPL 2024 final. SRH have strengthened their batting order by replacing Vijayakanth Viyaskanth with Aiden Markram.

Markram has scored 199 runs across nine innings at an average of 28.42 and a strike rate of 130.92 this season. The 29-year-old would want to turn things around by making a significant impact in the crucial fixture.

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RR win the toss and elect to field first against SRH in Qualifier 2 of IPL 2024

Sanju Samson won the toss for Rajasthan and chose to field first. Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins mentioned that he would have also preferred to bowl first in the contest.

Speaking at the toss, Cummins said:

"We probably would have had a bowl. We have batted well first this season, much of the same hopefully. The guys will be aggressive, it's not going to work every time, we are going to lose some wickets. We were well below our best a couple of days ago in Ahmedabad. Another chance tonight, much of the same. (Bowling) It's an ongoing discussion, this ground is a little bit bigger. We've got (Jaydev) Unadkat coming back in the team as well to strengthen it. Aiden Markram comes in for Vijayakanth (Viyaskanth)."

Here are the playing XIs for the Qualifier 2:

SRH: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Reddy, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Abdul Samad, Pat Cummins(c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, and T Natarajan.

Impact subs: Umran Malik, Sanvir Singh, Glenn Phillips, Mayank Markande, and Shahbaz Ahmed.

RR: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Sanju Samson(w/c), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Rovman Powell, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Sharma, and Yuzvendra Chahal.

Impact subs: Shimron Hetmyer, Nandre Burger, Shubham Dubey, Donovan Ferreira, and Kuldeep Sen.