Sunrisers Hyderabad will be hoping for a repeat of their dominating performance against Mumbai Indians in their IPL 2024 home opener, when they take on a formidable Chennai Super Kings at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Friday.

Both SRH and CSK are coming off losses in their respective previous outings, and as such both sides will look to get back to winning ways, and keep the momentum going.

Hyderabad’s only win of IPL 2024 so far came at home when they broke the ceiling by posting the IPL’s highest score of 277 against Mumbai Indians on March 8. However, their other two matches, both away games, ended in defeats.After the outing against Mumbai, it appeared as though SRH had finally found their momentum with an all-round effort by batters and bowlers alike but they faltered against the Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad. A second victory at home will thus keep them within sight of the top 4 in the points table, as they already boast of a positive net run-rate, thanks to the carnage against Mumbai.

The Sunrisers will be hoping that their opener Mayank Agarwal finally makes his presence felt after failing to convert his starts. His opening partner Travis Head, and the rest of the top and middle order comprising the likes of Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram and Heinrich Klaasen are in red-hot form and the Hyderabad crowd will be backing them to once again go ballistic against CSK’s bowling attack that will lack some sting with the loss of their star Bangladeshi recruit Mustafizur Rahman. Rahman has flown back to Dhaka to process his US Visa ahead of the T20 World Cup 2024 which will be held in the Caribbean and the United States from June.

SRH’s bowling attack is a well-oiled machine led by their skipper Pat Cummins, and comprises the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, and the spin duo of Washington Sundar and Shahbaz Ahmed. The spinners will be up for a challenging task to control the wrath of CSK big hitters like Shivam Dube.

On the other hand, CSK started as an invincible unit before being were grounded by their season’s first defeat to Delhi Capitals in Visakhapatnam, have been ticking the right boxes consistently, and thus their one-off defeat doesn’t seem to make much of a difference for Ruturaj Gaikwad’s outfit.

It is a long tournament and an odd dip in performance is expected, as mentioned by Gaikwad after the loss. However, he and his opening partner Rachin Ravindra will be expected to set the tempo for the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Daryl Mitchell, Dube, Ravindra Jadeja to wield their swords and add meat to the total.

Not to forget the 16-ball cameo from Mahendra Singh Dhoni against DC, and the fans across the globe, will be hoping that the former India skipper uses the long handle, perhaps for one last time in Hyderabad. Who knows?