IPL 2018: 5 Epic Clashes to be witnessed in this IPL Season
The 11th edition of Indian Premier League is nearly a week away. This season promises to be even more exciting as the franchises have made lots of changes to their respective squads. For instance, no-one would have thought that Ravichandran Ashwin would be picked up by Punjab, whilst Harbhajan Singh would be playing for Chennai.
Majority of the venues have opened up the online booking and the response has been tremendous, with the majority of the initial games in each venue having been filled up. Fans would be thronging to the stadium to witness some of the epic encounters between 8 competitive teams.
Over the last 10 seasons, we have seen some unforgettable encounters that have etched a place in our memory. Let us look at the Top 5 games that are expected to be epic encounters this season.
#5 Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Rajasthan Royals
Making a comeback after 2 years, Rajasthan Royals have received the biggest setback when their Captain Steve Smith was ruled out of IPL due to the ball-tampering controversy. Similar is the case with Sunrisers Hyderabad as David Warner has been ruled out citing same reasons. Ajinkya Rahane and Kane Williamson have been named as captains for their respective teams.
The 2016 season champions Sunrisers Hyderabad would be hunting for their second IPL trophy. They have recruited the likes of Shakib-Al-Hasan, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Wriddhiman Saha and Carlos Brathwaite aided by marquee players such as Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rashid Khan, and Shikar Dhawan.
On the other hand, Ajinkya Rahane will be leading a relatively young side. Barring Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, and Ben Stokes, Rajasthan Royals have a relatively inexperienced side. Jofra Archer, Dushmantha Chameera, Rahul Tripathi and Jaydev Unadkat will be the players to look out for.
With their default captains banned from their respective squads, the competition between both the teams will be worth watching as they will kick-start their tournament with hurdles to overcome.
In the 7 games played among each other, Rajasthan Royals have a slight edge over Sunrisers Hyderabad winning 4 games and losing 3 games. The 2 teams would clash against each other first at Hyderabad on April 9th. The 2nd game would be played at Jaipur on 29th April.