Chennai: SunRisers Hyderabad skipper David Warner on Sunday won the toss and opted to field first against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the third game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 season here at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
Harbhajan Singh is making his debut for KKR in the match against SRH.
Skipper Morgan had handed out a cap to the Turbanator before the toss.
At the time of the toss, Warner said: “We’re bowling first. This wicket will play a little different, it’s a lot drier. There wasn’t much dew in the last training session, and so that won’t make much of a difference. We know what we can chase, to be honest.”
Ahead of their match against KKR, SRH skipper Warner said that the boys have trained hard and they are ready for the 14th edition of the IPL.
“Really excited to get out, we had a practice session and the boys are ready to go…. they trained hard and prepared well. Had two good practice games. We are ready to come out and light it up hopefully,” Warner said in a video posted by SRH on Twitter.
“We know our supporters through social media and they are extremely supportive, I wish they could come but I know they are supporting us 100 per cent and we appreciate their support. Hopefully, we can entertain you by winning some games,” he added.
Last year, KKR failed to qualify for the playoffs as the side finished at fifth place in the points table, and on the other hand, SRH qualified for the playoffs.
SRH first defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Eliminator, but then the side had to stumble to a loss against Delhi Capitals in Qualifier 2. The Warner-led side had won five out of their last six games to qualify for the playoffs in the 13th edition of the tournament and the team will be looking to carry forward the momentum in this year’s IPL.
SunRisers Hyderabad playing XI:
David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Wriddhiman Saha, Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Abdul Samad, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan.
Kolkata Knight Riders playing XI:
Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Shakib Al Hasan, Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell, Harbhajan Singh, Pat Cummins, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy.