IPL 2024: Aakash Chopra throws his support behind Sunrisers Hyderabad ahead of summit clash

Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Rajasthan Royals by 36 runs to qualify for the IPL 2024 final. Even though they lost to Kolkata Knight Riders twice in the ongoing season, former cricketer Aakash Chopra believes that the Pat Cummins-led side has the quality to bounce back and eventually win the trophy. Weighing in on Hyderabad's strength, he expects Abhishek Sharma to deliver well, as he has been terrific so far in the bat.

Even with the ball, the youngster was brilliant against Rajasthan in Qualifier 2. However, KKR have a lot of left-hand batters in the form of Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana, and Rinku Singh, hence, Chopra isn’t quite sure if Sharma would be effective against them. However, he expects Sharma to deliver with the bat and picked him as SRH’s player to watch out for in the final.

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“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,” Chopra stated on his YouTube channel.

“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 added.

Chopra analyses other SRH options

The 46-year-old expects Heinrich Klaasen to step up in the final as well. He hit a half-century against RR in the last match and has made 463 runs in 15 matches at a strike rate of 176.04 so far. The former opener picked Klaasen as his second player to watch out for and also mentioned that SRH’s bowling unit looks brilliant, with Pat Cummins, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and T Natarajan in it.

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“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,” Chopra said.

“In bowling, Pat Cummins is absolutely a gun. There will be focus on him and then Bhuvneshwar Kumar and T Natarajan,” he added.