Having lost their opening encounters in the 17th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), both Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Mumbai Indians (MI) will hope to get their act together when they face off at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal on Wednesday.

While the Sunrisers narrowly lost to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their opening fixture as they fell short by four runs in a chase of 209, Mumbai suffered a six-run loss on Hardik Pandya’s return Ahmedabad as an opposition skipper for the first time after leading Gujarat Titans for the past two seasons.

On the face of it, SRH is now on a six-match losing streak. Before the game against KKR, they also lost their last five matches in IPL 2023. Under Pat Cummins, their third captain in as many seasons, the Orange Brigade will hope for a fresh start and get over the losing streak when they make their first appearance at the Uppal on Wednesday.

The Sunrisers gave glimpses of their lethal best in their opening fixture, during which Henrich Klaasen almost threatened to take the match away from KKR’s clutches before Harshit Rana’s final over heroics titled the momentum towards the home side.

The opening duo of Mayank Agarwal and Abhishek Sharma has shown promise but would also need to be consistent if SRH are to do well in the competition. SRH have also invested heavily in power-hitter Abdul Samad and it is high time he delivers on the promise.

The bowling order looks a decent unit, despite the seasoned Bhuvneshwar Kumar taken to the cleaners by Andre Russell, thus spoiling his tidy initial numbers.

“Tough job in cricket to bowl to someone like him (Russell). It’s one of those ones which goes one way or the other. Who would have thought we would have got that close? Unfortunately, a bit too much. Lots to be encouraged by. A couple of points to work on also,” Cummins said after the narrow loss at the Eden Gardens.

On the other hand, five-time IPL champions MI lived up to their reputation of slow starters over the years, and would blame themselves for failing to manage 48 off the final six with seven wickets in hand against Gujarat.

Nevertheless, despite ending on the wrong side of the outcome, MI would be happy drawing the positives from their season opener, and the biggest positive for them could be the fitness of their pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and the batting form of former captain Rohit Sharma.

While Ishan Kishan’s return to action lasted mere four balls, the young wicketkeeper-batter will be hoping to earn back the trust of the national board with his performances, especially after being dropped from the annual contracts.

MI would be hoping for the likes of South African Dewald Brevis to continue his sublime form, and expect Tim David to deliver the goods. In his first game as Mumbai captain, Hardik pushed himself down the order to No.7 to accommodate the likes of David and Brevis, but considering he batted much higher for the Titans last year, the team management might ask him to bat higher up the order and shoulder the responsibility.

Bumrah has led the pace battery well and lived up to the billing with his individual brilliance while spinners Shams Mulani and Piyush Chawla will be expected to make full use of the slowness at the Uppal.