IPL 2020 Match Preview : Batting might as against all round bowling to decide RCB versus SRH encounter

Image courtesy: BCCI, IPL

In head-to-head encounters, there is historically little to choose between the southern Indian Premier League (IPL) teams in terms of pure results alone. In 15 games between the two IPL franchises, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have won eight and six, respectively. One game saw no result.

SRH has not only just managed to win more games, but also the matches that mattered the most in the past. In 2016, Virat Kohli had a stunning year with the bat (the almost impossible 1,000 runs barrier in IPL was within his reach). He was able to carry his team to the final and also played a remarkable innings against SRH, but couldn’t lift the trophy as David Warner’s side won the match by eight runs.

Openers: Aussies and wicketkeepers

It’s a tale of the two Australian openers at the top for SRH and RCB. While the left-handed Warner has evolved over the years as a very bankable batsman and now a very respected captain for his franchise, his counterpart Aaron Finch is yet to make a significant mark in the IPL as a batsman or as a captain (despite leading Australia in white-ball cricket).

While Warner is assured of his partner in Jonney Bairstow (equally attacking like his skipper and possess a good hitting ability against spin), the mystery around Finch’s partner is not resolved as either Parthiv Patel or AB de Villiers may join him at the top. While Patel is a seasoned wicketkeeper since the first addition in 2008 for many teams, the South African is expected to put up a double role of opener cum keeper this season.

A contrasting tale of the two No 3s

While no words are required to describe RCB’s No. 3 Virat Kohli’s batting prowess, perhaps the new generation of fans may not remember that almost a decade back Manish Pandey hit the first overseas hundred by an Indian at the IPL for the same franchise.

Pandey at one point of time was seen as equally precocious talent from Bengaluru like Kohli (they have been U-19 mates), but somehow never found a solid game to establish himself. In the last 12 months, Pandey has improved tremendously for India and it can be expected that he will have a great season for SRH.

Weakest versus strongest middle over fight

The names of Virat Singh, Vijay Shankar, Abdul Samad and Mohammad Nabi (although he was in great touch in recent Caribbean Premier League) in the middle overs are not going to strike fear in any opponents. At least on paper, they are the weakest middle order in IPL 2020. In contrast, AB de Villiers (in case Devdutt Padikkal opens with Finch), Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, and Chris Morris have got the firepower and experience in their armoury, making it possibly the best middle-order of this IPL.

Certainly, it is an area where SRH looks relatively weaker. “We did not give much of a chance to our middle order last time,” said skipper Warner ahead of the encounter. “We will do our job at the top of the order. They should go out and bat freely. If wickets fall, [they should] try and put pressure back on the bowlers. Move forward; if you suck up balls, you won’t help anybody.”

The battle of the leg-spinners
If Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan is the ‘ABD’ (most complete bowler) of T20 bowling, then purely as a leg-spinner RCB have a challenger in Yuzvendra Chahal, who has been the most successful bowler for Kohli’s team. With all due respect to ‘Yuzi’, any dream XI will have Rashid as a bowler first and not just as the first spinner (which Chahal is yet to reach that stage).

The fast bowling frontSRH is one team which has been an outlier in the sense that they have based their attack around bowlers and more so attacking fast bowlers over the years. If Bhuvneshwar Kumar (regardless of his relative deterioration in the last two seasons) is perhaps still the master of this format (if he is fully fit), he is assisted by a young left-armer in Khaleel Ahmed and inspiring pacer Siddarth Kaul.

In spite of Umesh Yadav’s fine show for RCB of late and young Navdeep Saini (who is now part of India T20 team regularly), the likes of Dube and Morris don’t give Kohli strong options in this front. And that could be a big deciding factor in the match. The death bowling (mostly done by pacers in IPL) is a perennial weakness for the RCB, particularly in the last two seasons where they have been most generous with 11.87 and 10.83 runs per over, which put them among the worst in the league.

Ultimately, like Mahendra Singh Dhoni for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rohit Sharma for Mumbai Indians, RCB is all about Kohli as far as bringing charisma to the team is concerned. Kohli is in his 8th season as captain of RCB. He has attracted the most criticism for his IPL team. In the last three occasions, RCB have has got wooden spoon on two occasions.

“We’ve got a great balance of experience, the skill required for T20 cricket. The youngsters in the team are eager to take up the responsibility and look forward to opportunities that we're going to provide them,” Kohli said optimistically to RCB TV ahead of the new season.

Optimism is what both teams will be looking for in the first game of the belated IPL 13, which can’t be taken lightly by either.

(Vimal Kumar is a senior sports journalist who has covered multiple cricket world cups and Rio Olympics in the last two decades. Vimal is also the author of Sachin: Cricketer Of The Century and The Cricket Fanatic’s Essential Guide.)

Follow Moneycontrol’s full coverage of IPL 2020 here