IPL 2020: Aakash Chopra picks the strongest posssible playing XI for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)

Aakash Chopra, the former Indian opener and a popular commentator, has picked up the strongest possible playing eleven for Sunrisers Hyderabad. He took to Facebook and posted a video of himself picking up the team. Sunrisers won the 2016 IPL by beating Royal Challengers Bangalore in the final match and they ended as the runners-up in 2018.

The return of David Warner as a captain is also positive news for the franchise as he was the captain last time they won the trophy. Warner has been a consistent performer in IPL, over the years and won the Orange Cap as well in the last season. Chopra praised their skipper and also named him their potential stand-out performer.

“I will start with the captain David Warner. He is an IPL legend, his stats are even better than Indian batsmen.”

As expected, he picked Jonny Bairstow, Manish Pandey and Vijay Shankar at number two, three and four respectively. He didn’t include Kane Williamson, the New Zealand captain, in the eleven. Chopra has previously mentioned that as Mohammad Nabi is in terrific form, Williamson might have to make way for the Afghanistan all-rounder.

Chopra picked youngster Virat Singh at five and chose Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan at six and seven respectively. He didn’t pick an extra batsman as the Hyderabad franchise doesn’t have a decent Indian prospect for the spot.

“Virat Singh hits a lot of boundaries but has not played in the IPL before. At No.6, you ideally want another batsman but they don’t have any experienced Indian batsman,” he mentioned.

They will struggle a little to make the top four: Aakash Chopra

The commentator further mentioned that he was going with Shahbaz Nadeem and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the experienced pacer at eight and nine. He further added Khaleel Ahmed to give a variety of left-arm seam bowling to the lineup. At no. eleven, he picked both Sandeep Sharma and Siddharth Kaul and said that both give identical performances and the management can rotate them.

The former cricketer expressed that he doesn’t feel that Hyderabad is strong enough to reach top 4 and they might struggle to reach there.

“I think they will struggle a little to make the top four, they don’t look like a tournament-winning side to me.”

Aakash Chopra’s ideal Sunrisers Hyderabad playing XI

David Warner (c), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Virat Singh, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Siddarth Kaul/Sandeep Sharma