Toss and teams

Yes! Ben Stokes has returned to RR's set-up. And that would be a confidence-booster. RR have also picked Parag and Uthappa. SRH have gone for Vijay Shankar ahead of Samad.

Meanwhile, SRH have won the toss and opted to bat. The track could get slower. So it could be a good toss to win.

Steve Smith - We can hopefully rectify a few things today. We want to compete today. Looks like a used wicket, could slow down. We'll have to take some early wickets - Look he trained well and he's in today (Stokes). Two other changes as well. Stokes, Riyan Parag and Robin Uthappa are back. We'll need to keep moving forward, we have a good team and we need to compete.

David Warner - We'll bat first. It's a nice wicket, we will need to make most of the powerplay overs, hopefully, things will go on nicely today. We have a lot of young legs in our team, the seniors take full responsibility. We are taking each game as it comes - Vijay Shankar in and Samad misses out

Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): David Warner(c), Jonny Bairstow(w), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Vijay Shankar, Priyam Garg, Abhishek Sharma, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed, T Natarajan

Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Jos Buttler(w), Robin Uthappa, Sanju Samson, Steven Smith(c), Ben Stokes, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Kartik Tyagi, Varun Aaron

Good news! For people wondering, Ben Stokes is indeed warming up, will he be a part of Royals playng XI? We'll get to know in a short while

Prelude - SRH v RR

Two successive wins. Four losses in a row. The IPL 2020 has been a tale of two halves for Rajasthan Royals so far. The franchise started on a bang by winning in Sharjah, but have struggled to maintain that momentum.

Barring Jofra Archer and to a lesser Rahul Tewatia, rest of the bowlers haven't made an impact. After notching up substantial scores in Sharjah, the batsmen too have been below par. In that context, Ben Stokes' much-anticipated return could boost the side.

"Stokes hasn't had a lot of practice, he gets out of quarantine tomorrow, so we'll see if he plays the day after tomorrow," Smith had noted after RR slid to a loss against Delhi Capitals.

What about Sunrisers Hyderabad? Even though the Hyderabad franchise has struggled with a few injuries, they have been able to eke out hard-fought wins and find themselves at the fifth spot on the points table. Jonny Bairstow and David Warner have once again turned out to be the cornerstones of the batting unit, while Rashid Khan and T Natarajan have performed admirably with the ball.

On side note, Jofra Archer dismissed Warner in 4 of the 5 innings the pair came up against each other in the recent bilateral series.

Check out our preview as we dissect the two sides ahead of the encounter.