The Sunrisers Hyderabad team's batsmen, who raised their hopes by registering an unexpected win in the last match, will undergo a tough test against the spinners of Lucknow Supergiants in the IPL match to be held here on Saturday. Lucknow have lost two out of the last three matches but if they beat Aiden Markram-led Sunrisers team, then they will make it to the top four. As far as the Sunrisers team is concerned, it is currently in the ninth position in the 10-team points table with eight points from 10 matches.

The Lucknow team, led by Krunal Pandya, is in fifth place with 11 points from 11 matches. Uppal's wicket, however, has been helping the slower bowlers and in such a situation the role of spinners will be crucial. Lucknow has a useful spin trio in the form of Ravi Bishnoi, experienced Amit Mishra, and captain Krunal, in front of whom the Sunrisers batsmen may have to struggle. Sunrisers' batting is dependent on three overseas players Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, and Glenn Phillips. Phillips made it to the playing XI due to the failure of Harry Brook, sold for Rs 13.25 crore.

If we talk about spinners, Lucknow seems to have the upper hand over Hyderabad. Sunrisers' spin department has weakened due to Washington Sundar's injury. Mayank Markande, the only spinner from his side, has been able to perform well so far. The Hyderabad team looks strong on paper but it has to suffer the loss of poor form of two leading Indian batsmen Mayank Agarwal (187 runs in 9 matches) and Rahul Tripathi (237 runs in 10 matches). Apart from Klaasen (185.34), only Abhishek Sharma (152.63) among his top-order batsmen has scored at a strike rate of more than 150. As far as Lucknow's batting is concerned, captain KL Rahul's injury has not affected the team much as the top-order consisting of Quinton de Kock and Kyle Myers has been adept at playing aggressively from the start.

Will have to be careful with Bhuvi
There are batsmen like Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran in the middle order who have played many good innings so far. Ayush Badoni has also made an impact but it was a slow Lucknow wicket on which his batsmen could not play freely. Lucknow's batsmen would like to showcase their attacking game on the wicket here but they will have to be cautious against the pace bowling duo of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and T Natarajan.

Possible playing 11 of both the teams

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Anmolpreet Singh/Mayank Agarwal, Aiden Markram (captain), Heinrich Klaasen (wicketkeeper), Glenn Phillips, Abdul Samad, Vivrant Sharma, Marco Johnson, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Markande, T Natarajan.

Lucknow Super Giants: Quinton de Kock (wk), Kyle Mayers, Marcus Stoinis, Ayush Badoni, Deepak Hooda, Nicholas Pooran, Krunal Pandya (c), Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan, Yash Thakur.

(pc aajtak)