Former England batsman Mark Butcher feels South African-born England cricketer Jason Roy will start ahead of Australia’s David Warner when Sunrisers Hyderabad take on Delhi Capitals here on Wednesday.
Both the teams will play their first match of the second phase of IPL here and Delhi Capitals have 12 points from eight matches while Sunrisers Hyderabad are trailing by two points after winning just one match.
“Jason Roy looked in great form in the backend of England’s white-ball series in the UK. She is going to be very hungry. At the moment, Roy has an edge over a player like (David) Warner. So, that’s how I would go with him,” said the butcher.
“Sunrisers Hyderabad have had some glorious years with Warner as the captain, combining Tom Moody and Warner at the top of the innings. You think heartily what this pair was capable of and how they got together,” Butcher said on cricket.com’s ‘Man vs Machine’ on Tuesday.
Warner was dropped as the captain of Sunrisers during the India leg of the tournament as New Zealand captain Kane Williamson was given the reins of the team. Butcher feels that Warner may not find a place in the XI and with Jonny Bairstow deciding to pull out of the IPL, Jason Roy should be the choice of the SRH think-tank to replace Bairstow in the XI.
As far as the statistics are concerned, Sunrisers have beaten Delhi Capitals twice in the IPL in Dubai and the former England batsman feels that the Hyderabad franchise would like to make it a hat-trick of wins.
Happily for the Delhi franchise, Shreyas Iyer is fit and eager to move on. Iyer, who guided the team to the finals of IPL 2020, will not lead the team as wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant has been entrusted with the task.
“I doubt Shreyas Iyer would be worried about leaving the captaincy with Rishabh Pant. It’s great to be back and focus on my game. He has scored a mountain of runs in T20 cricket since 2019 – over 2,000 – only Shikhar Dhawan and Marcus Stoinis have scored more runs. He is in good form and I don’t think keeping Pant as captain will bother him in the slightest.”
Butcher also feels that South African bowler Kagiso Rabad will erase his poor pitch and shine in the matches in Dubai.
“A class player will always prove you wrong in the end. For that reason, I think Ricky Ponting will be with him for now. But he has a replacement – someone like Umesh Yadav – probably won’t be in the starting XI, but is a good replacement and frees up another spot for overseas players,” Butcher, who has played 71 Tests, said.
“But I think Rabada will keep his place and Ricky will keep a close eye on how he can turn things around if Rabada doesn’t do well. But when you are such a good player you eventually come good and you at some point in future make a lot of pundits like me and Rabada will do it if I leave him now,” he added.
get all IPL news and cricket score Here
.