Under new captain Williamson, SRH face RR

New Delhi: SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) will be pressing the reboot button to their Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign when they take on Rajasthan Royals (RR) under new captain Kane Williamson at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Sunday.

SRH announced the removal of Warner from captaincy on Saturday after the Australian couldn't inspire his team to impressive performances in the first six matches of the league.

SRH also said that they will be changing the overseas combination for Sunday's game against Rajasthan Royals.

"The team management has also made the decision that they will be changing their overseas combination for tomorrow's match against Rajasthan Royals," added the SRH statement.

The franchise said that the decision to replace Warner wasn't been easy.

"This decision has not come lightly as the management respects the enormous impact David Warner has had for the franchise over a number of years. As we face the remainder of the season we are sure David will continue to help us strive for success both on and off the field," said the statement.

Australian opener Warner had led SRH to the play-offs last season. However, this year they have failed to conjure up wins. Their middle-order batting has let them down.The Hyderabad franchise lies at the bottom of the points table having scored just one win. Their biggest problem has been their middle-order batting which has failed to put up big scores and has slipped up during easy chases.

Williamson himself missed the first few matches of the season but ever since he has come back into the side, he has batted well. His half-century against Delhi Capitals took the match into the power-play.

SRH have also been criticised for not fielding a balanced side and it will be interesting to see how Williamson picks his playing eleven on Sunday afternoon. Warner's comments during the tournament earlier suggested that he didn't have full authority in picking the playing eleven.

Thankfully for SRH, they will be facing RR who themselves are struggling to keep up with the race. RR are just one spot above SRH and a loss on Sunday will push them back to the bottom of the points table.

The Royals have won two out of their six matches so far while the Sunrisers have one victory from six games. No wonder, RR is placed seventh while SRH occupied the bottom slot in the IPL table.

RR have a lot of issues to sort out, particularly in the absence of key foreign players like Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes. RR have only four overseas players with them after the departure of a number of them due to various reasons. They are still trying to get replacements.

Their batting depends heavily on Samson but the inconsistent captain has not fired since the 119 in the opening match with 42 being the highest after that. Opener Jos Buttler is yet to score a half century in six matches.

The middle-order is struggling with David Miller having scored just one half century in five games while Riyan Parag is out-of-form with 25 as his highest.

In the bowling department, million dollar recruit Chris Morris has been doing a great job with 11 wickets from six matches but he cannot single-handedly carry the team on his shoulders as his team-mates are struggling.

Rahul Tewatia is doing nothing with just one wickets from six matches. Senior pacer Jaydev Unadkat has four wickets to show in as many games while Bangladesh import Mustafizur Rahman has taken five from six matches. Young Chetan Sakariya has been Royals' find with seven wickets from six matches