Why is Dale Steyn not playing today’s IPL 2020 match vs Sunrisers Hyderabad?

Dixit Bhargav | 31/10/2020
Why is Dale Steyn not playing today's IPL 2020 match vs Sunrisers Hyderabad?

Dale Steyn not playing: Royal Challengers Bangalore have rested their veteran fast bowler for today’s IPL 2020 match vs SRH.

During the 52nd match of the ongoing 13th season of the Indian Premier League between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad in Sharjah, Sunrisers Hyderabad captain David Warner has won the toss and chose to field.

“We’ll have a bowl. Having positive attitude and coming out here, we obviously have to win both the games to make it to the finals. For us, it’s about to come out and start fresh and forget about the last game. It’s how I approach every game, try to come out and do my best and get us off to a good start,” Warner told Star Sports during the toss.

Being asked about the changes to their Playing XI, Warner confirmed that all-rounder Vijay Shankar will miss this match due to an injury which he suffered in the last match. All-rounder Abhishek Sharma, who has already played eight matches this season, has been reinstated into the XI.

Why is Dale Steyn not playing today’s IPL 2020 match vs SRH?

Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli, on the other hand, revealed that he was looking forward to bat first on a “dry” surface. Much like Sunrisers, Royal Challengers have also made a couple of changes as all-rounder Shivam Dube and pacer Dale Steyn have been benched for all-rounder Isuru Udana and pacer Navdeep Saini.

“We wanted to bat first to be honest. It’s pretty dry. We think it’ll get slower and slower as the game progresses. Pretty happy to be bating first. It was a strange phase of batting out there (against Mumbai Indians), whatever we hit went to hand. Usually it doesn’t happen with our batting line-up, but these things happen on the field,” Kohli told Star Sports during the toss.

While Kohli wasn’t asked about the reason behind dropping Steyn, one feels it has been done due to the 37-year old bowler’s mediocre form this season. In three T20s this season, Steyn’s solitary wicket has come at an economy and strike rate of 11.40 and 70 respectively.

Post Edited By: Dixit Bhargav
Dale Steyn IPL 2020 RCB Royal Challengers Bangalore SRH Sunrisers Hyderabad

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

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