IPL 2020: Sunil Gavaskar leaves out Kane Williamson from his SRH playing XI

The much-awaited Indian Premier League (IPL) season is set to get underway on Saturday with MI and CSK facing each other in the opening game. Ahead of the season, former cricketers and experts have been giving their opinions on the team combinations of all the franchises. Former India cricketer and a commentator Sunil Gavaskar has picked his playing XI for the Sunrisers Hyderabad and has left out Kane Williamson.

The restriction of playing only four overseas players leads to the teams taking some tough calls and the same is likely to happen with the SRH. As far as Gavaskar is concerned, he reckons that the opening combination of Jonny Bairstow and David Warner shouldn’t be tinkered. The duo did extremely well in the last season and will be keen on continuing the good job even this year.

“The way Warner and Bairstow had their opening partnership in the entire tournament, both made many runs. So they will open the batting. Then you need the two Afghan players Nabi and Rashid as they are match-winners. That is why Kane Williamson will have to sit out for the first few matches,” the 71-year-old said while speaking to Sports Tak.

Sunil Gavaskar backs Priyam Garg to bat at four for SRH

Interestingly, Sunil Gavaskar picked India U19 captain Priyam Garg to bat at four and felt Manish Pandey should come in at a crucial number three position. Vijay Shankar and Wriddhiman Saha also made it to his team at five and six. Gavaskar picked Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Basil Thampi and Sandeep Sharma in his SRH bowling attack.

He feels that Thampi will come good this season and the pace attack could be a dangerous one for the opposition teams. Apart from them, the spin department will be taken care of by Afghanistan duo Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi. “Basil Thampi is also a good bowler. He had bowled really well in the 2018 IPL season. He did not bowl so well in the 2019 IPL because maybe he was not fully fit at that point in time.

“But this bowling attack can prove to be quite a dangerous one for the opposition. Their bowlers have under the radar bowling ability and thus they can surprise many teams in the tournament,” Sunil Gavaskar further said.

Here’s Sunil Gavaskar’s SRH playing XI: David Warner (C), Jonny Bairstow, Manish Pandey, Priyam Garg, Vijay Shankar, Wriddhiman Saha (WK), Mohammad Nabi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Basil Thampi, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma.