It wasn't a start both teams were expecting - more so Chennai Super Kings. Three losses in a row at the beginning of the IPL is unchartered territory for the four-time champions and now they face fellow strugglers Sunrisers Hyderabad who have also lost both their games so far.
As SRH try to come to terms with the fact that they don't have a Rashid Khan to fall back upon anymore, CSK's problems have been manifold - injuries to key pacers and lack of form of top-order being the discordant notes.
While Dwayne Bravo, Dwaine Pretorius and Chris Jordan have looked decent at the death, it's the lack of incisiveness of the attack early on that is hurting the franchise. With injured Deepak Chahar still not available, CSK are desperate to find someone who can give them the early wickets, but no one has really looked threatening.
It has meant that the two spinners Moeen Ali and Ravindra Jadeja, along with the three foreign pacers, have been asked to do a little too much at the backend after oppositions have got good starts.
SRH, too, have some good players in the top-order in the form of Kane Williamson, Nicholas Pooran, Aiden Markram and Rahul Tripathi. It will be important that at least a couple of them deliver on Saturday at the DY Patil Stadium.
Incidentally, it's a 3:30 pm start and the dew will not play too big a part. In such a situation, the spinners, too, should have a bigger say in both the innings. Moeen and Jadeja have all the experience in the world to put the SRH batting under pressure while the Hyderabad franchise is a little weak on this front with Washington Sundar being the only tweaker of note. They, however, have senior leggie Shreyas Gopal in the squad, and it might not be a bad idea to throw a wrist-spinner into the mix against CSK.
But if SRH have to make a mark, it will be imperative for senior paceman Bhuvneshwar Kumar to do some early damage. CSK have struggled with the lack of form of Ruturaj Gaikwad upfront.
