IPL 2024 – Match 3: Travis Head to open Heinrich Klaasen in Middle; SRH Playing 11 vs KKR

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) will face Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the match 3 of IPL 2024. This match will be played at Eden Gardens Kolkata on 23rd March at 7:30 PM. SRH under a new captain will be hoping that their fortune changes as they finished 10th last season and it has been a long time since SRH qualified for the IPL playoffs.

SRH’s Probable Playing 11 vs KKR

SRH have replaced Aiden Markram as their skipper and will be now led by the World Cup-winning captain Pat Cummins. The 2016 champions have roped him in for 20.5 crore and have also added Travis Head to their team. SRH will expect him to give explosive starts to the team, something which SRH is lacking since they let go of David Warner.

Strong Overseas Core

SRH have built a great overseas core by buying Pat Cummins, Travis Head and Wanindu Hasaranga from the auction who will be uniting with Markram, Klassen, Phillips, Jansen and Farooqi. This provides a happy headache to the SRH management to decide their four overseas players for the playing 11 with Cummins being a sure starter along with their best batter from the previous season who was Klassen.

Travis Head is also expected to start but doubts remain on the fourth pick that could be an impact player or might be Phillips as Hasaranga’s availability remains uncertain.

Focus On Top 3

SRH will be opening with Head but it will be interesting to see who they will slot alongside him. For now, their best option seems to be Mayank Agarwal who is experienced and was their second-highest run scorer last season. 

Other options are Abhishek Sharma, Anmolpreet Singh and some more options like Upendra Yadav or Washington Sundar while Rahul Tripathi can be expected to continue at 3 until the management decides to give Abhishek or Shabaz a go at 3.

Markram who batted at 4 for them last season may not make it to the 11 this season, SRH will be tempted to start with Philips at 4 and Klassen coming at 5 to bat, and keeping the wickets as well.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar to lead the bowling attack

The experience of Bhuvi will once again come into play for SRH as he will be the leader of the exciting bowling attack that SRH have.

Fans will expect Umran Malik, Nitish Kumar Reddy, and Akash Singh to do well with the ball and Natarjan to nail his yorkers to perfection again like in IPL 2020.

In the spin bowling department, they will look to go with Mayank Markande and Wanindu Hasaranga (once available) 

Pitch conditions at Eden Gardens

The Eden track will favour spinners and that’s why SRH will be tempted to go with Philips who has been in fine form with the ball too recently meanwhile the first-inning score here remains 160. Last season KKR spinners were on fire on the pitch of Edens and even in the recent cricket World Cup, we saw spinners dominating here.

SRH Probable Playing XI

Travis Head, Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Tripathi, Glenn Phillips, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Pat Cummins (c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Markande, Umran Malik

Impact Player – Nitish Kumar Reddy/Abhishek Sharma