IPL Live Score 2024 SRH vs CSK: Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Chennai Super Kings

SRH acquired Pat Cummins during the auction and immediately made him captain. Meanwhile, MS Dhoni gave away the captaincy role to Ruturaj Gaikwad on the eve of the season opener. Gaikwad has been positive with his leadership skills, and has Dhoni for assistance.

Meanwhile, Cummins will be hoping that his senior-most Indian batter Mayank Agarwal finds some form, The opener has failed to impress until now but has received support from Daniel Vettori, who is part of the team’s coaching staff. The New Zealand legend said, “In terms of Mayank, in the first game he gave us exactly what we wanted. In the last two games he missed out but that’s the nature of batting. We want our batters to have the freedom to be able to be aggressive and playing their style. For Mayank, it is around countering what the opposition brings. He’s obviously had three similar dismissals [off short balls], so that’s something that he’s working hard on to rectify.”

Meanwhile, CSK will be hoping for Matheesha Pathirana to fire today. The Sri Lanka has taken 23 wickets since IPL 2023 with 19 of them at the death, which is also the joint-most with Mohit Sharma. Pressure will also be on Gaikwad to assess the conditions adequately. His experience came under focus during their defeat against DC. Chennai will also need to be wary about Heinrich Klaasen. The SRH wicketkeeper-batter has smacked 696 runs off 359 balls against spin since 2023, with 30 fours and 58 sixes. He has also slammed 334 runs in six IPL innings in Hyderabad, striking at 197.63.

Speaking ahead of the match, CSK batting coach Michael Hussey said, “One thing we want to improve is assessing the conditions slightly quicker than we did in the last match. It is important for players who start in the middle to assess the conditions quickly and send the messages back.”

Shardul Thakur hasn’t featured for CSK yet and could replace Mustafizur Rahman today. Thakur will also give his side more depth in the batting department, and will be a good match-up for Abhishek Sharma. In his 14 balls bowled to the Punjab batter, Thakur has leaked only 16 runs, and has taken his wickets twice. He has also removed Klaasen twice in 11 balls in IPL.