Is Ben Stokes playing IPL 2020 match vs SRH: Why is Abdul Samad not playing vs Rajasthan Royals?

Ben Stokes playing IPL 2020 match vs SRH: The English all-rounder will take the field today at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

During the 26th match of the ongoing 13th season of the Indian Premier League between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals in Dubai, Sunrisers Hyderabad captain David Warner has won the toss and chose to bat.

“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,” Warner said during the toss.

As far as the changes for Hyderabad are concerned, they have included all-rounder Vijay Shankar for Abdul Samad for this match. While Warner wasn’t asked about the reason behind the change, one feels it has been done to give an opportunity to the senior all-rounder.

Is Ben Stokes playing IPL 2020 match vs SRH?

Coming on the back of four consecutive losses, Rajasthan have made as many as three changes to their Playing XI. “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 [Ben Stokes] trained well and he’s in today. Two other changes as well – Jaydev Unadkat, Riyan Parag and Robin Uthappa are back. We’ll need to keep moving forward, we have a good team and we need to compete,” RR captain Steven Smith said during the toss.

While Stokes will be played his first IPL 2020 match, Unadkat, Parag and Uthappa have played five matches each so far. The development means that Royals have dropped their overseas fast bowler in Andrew Tye and three Indian players in Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mahipal Lomror and Varun Aaron.