SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) will play against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the IPL 2024 final in Chennai on Sunday, May 26. While choosing KKR as the likely winner, Aakash Chopra has said that SRH could spring a surprise as well. However, KKR defeated SRH in their two previous matches this season as well.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra said, “It’s going to be a good game. I feel this encounter will be extremely enjoyable. Hyderabad will not go down without a fight. Don’t be surprised if they lift the trophy. That is also possible. It is the third final for both teams (fourth for KKR). KKR lifted the trophy at this ground itself in 2012 after beating Chennai.”
“First player – Abhishek Sharma. I am not going towards Travis Head because there is Mitchell Starc in the opposition – left-arm pacer. Although he managed Trent Boult, I am not going with him. I am going with Abhishek Sharma, who is batting well. He became a little too greedy in the last match and got out because of that. However, he bowled and he might be required to bowl in this match as well, although there will be one thing with KKR, there will be one left-hander always on the pitch,” the former KKR player further added.
However, he also picked Abhishek Sharma ahead of Travis Head as the first SRH player to watch out for in the final as well. Chopra pointed said that KKR have a plethora of left-handed batters – Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana, and Rinku Singh. He again added that they will always keep the left-right combination in the middle and not allow the left-arm spin to dominate as well. Aakash Chopra also chose Heinrich Klaasen as the second crucial player for the SRH as well.
“The second player is Heinrich Klaasen. In Qualifier 1 and also the third game of the season, runs came from his bat against this team. He is not bothered that much against spin and he plays differently. He played very well in the last match as well. It was a slow fifty as per his standards but it was a massive fifty if you win the match by such a huge margin. In bowling, Pat Cummins is absolutely gun. There will be focus on him and then Bhuvneshwar Kumar and T Natarajan. Rahul Tripathi is in good form. It seems like it is extremely high-risk batting but who cares because he scores runs,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
