Here are the Impact substitutes for both the teams:

Rajasthan Royals Impact Subs: Sanju Samson, Kunal Singh Rathore, Akash Madhwal, Kumar Kartikeya, Kwena Maphaka

Sunrisers Hyderabad Impact Subs: Sachin Baby, Jaydev Unadkat, Zeeshan Ansari, Adam Zampa, Wiaan Mulder

Teams:

Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubham Dubey, Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag(c), Dhruv Jurel(w), Shimron Hetmyer, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep Sharma, Fazalhaq Farooqi

Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Aniket Verma, Abhinav Manohar, Pat Cummins(c), Simarjeet Singh, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Shami

Pat Cummins: It is great to be back.

Riyan Parag: Bowling first. Looks like a dry wicket so we'll have a crack at it later. Means a lot, started here as a 17 year old. Getting to fill in big shoes, very excited.

Rajasthan Royals have won the toss and have opted to field

Time for the toss, Riyan Parag is out in the middle with Pat Cummins.

Travis Head: Feels good to be back, seen some pretty good moments last year. Fingers crossed that it can happen early season again to get that momentum that we had. I’m enjoying the fact that Abhi (Abhishek Sharma) has had a really good 12 months, he’s got a lot better than last year and done extremely well on the International stage. Looking forward to supporting him again, and I think he’s going to have a huge year once again. Hopefully I start well too. It is just about continuing the messaging that we had last year, the relaxed environment we wanted and the expectation that someone will have their day. Pat (Cummins) and Dan (Vettori) bring a relaxed vibe. There is no expectation from one person to do it, it is a team effort. We’ve got a lot of experience with bat and ball, so early stages it is all about getting that continuity and consistency. I’ve trained well the last 3 days, but these games are brutal and nothing is guaranteed. Let’s hope we start well.

14:45 Local Time, 09:15 GMT, 14:45 IST: "Good afternoon from Hyderabad," pings Prakash Govindasreen - our correspondent from the stadium. "Akash Madhwal the first to mark his run up on the main pitch while Jofra jogs in and bowls on the side. Zampa is here now, doing some sprints while Harshal and Shami bowl on the side wicket. Looks like wide yorker practice for Harshal. He bowled one right on the marker and got applause from bowling coach James Franklin. Farooqi and Shami have marked their run-ups too."

Pitch Report | Mpumelelo Mbangwa and Michael Clarke: "Dimensions - 63m and 70m square boundaries, 76m straight down the ground. 205 is the average score here and on this particular pitch, the average is 216. The only way to describe it is batting paradise. It's an absolute belter once again and has been for a long period of time. The only thing and I am clutching at straws, both ends it looks a little bit dry, there's a tiny bit more grass in the middle of the wicket compared to the ends. I am hoping for a little bit of two-pace, a little bit of spin, so it's not an absolute belter. This heat, this pitch, you want to be a batsman. If you bat first here, you gotta be looking above 200 and then you look to defend. In a 20-over game, it's very hard to see the pitch deteriorate but you hope it does. Maybe a bit of change of pace, maybe a little bit more spin bowling second. High-scoring that's all we can say."

SRH last season relied heavily on their batting line up and tried to score those extra runs to have the leverage as a bowling unit. But ahead of IPL 2025, SRH have tried to fortify their bowling department. The addition of Zampa, Shami and Harshal Patel will certainly give them new dimensions with the ball as well. RR will have Archer and Hasaranga trying to flummox the batters. The deck at Hyderabad will offer plethora of runs. But it will boil down to the bowlers to hold their nerves as both line ups isn't short of batting artillery.

14:35 Local Time, 09:05 GMT, 14:35 IST: Two more teams will throw in their hats to lay their hands on the coveted crown! It is SRH taking on RR. SRH almost ran the distance last year before running out of gas in the finale. The loss was so daunting that they wouldn't want to traverse back in time despite the season being so enriching for them. The partnership at the top, the devastating duo will look to restart their pyrotechnics again. They have added Ishan Kishan into the mix and they will look to scale down Mt. 300! RR made it to the play offs yet again last season but looked out of sorts when it mattered the most. They have picked a batting line up which has an Indian look about it. But will it work? If it does, the Royals will have another fruitful year but if doesn't then Samson and Jaiswal will have to do bulk of the scoring.

Preview by Prakash Govindasreenivasan

300. Three Hundred. Those are the words. The expectation. The casual anticipation of batting reach this year. Bowlers' open complaints about the impact player's detrimental effect on their tribe didn't yield the results it intended. The rule has instead got another season's renewal and the teams, including the ones set to walk out in Hyderabad on Sunday afternoon, have accepted the reality of needing to embrace the course that the tournament has got itself on.

On the eve of the game at a venue whose conditions have notoriously formed a tag-team partnership with batters, SRH head coach Daniel Vettori revealed that captain Pat Cummins has left the onus of performance on them. The finalists got back almost as much of the brutality their batters served the opposition with, and still made it all the way before falling at the final hurdle. Like last season, Cummins expects his batters to do all the heavy-lifting while bowlers navigate life through the treacherous path laid out for them.

Sanju Samson narrowed the imbalance between bat and ball down to how different the idea of 'maximising the PowerPlay' looks like at the moment. The team he faces on Saturday afternoon smashed two 100-plus scores in this phase last year to top the charts. With the core of the devastating top-order retained and with Ishan Kishan added to it, SRH find themselves to be the prime candidates for any total, however, unprecedented. RR's task of not being in this line of fire is compounded by the fact that they've had their rather competent bowling attack from 2024 stripped down and rebuilt, with a dash of inexperience added in.

Sunday afternoon's clash might lack the history, aura and anticipation of what follows at prime time in Chennai between two serial winners (CSK and MI), but the two teams - with one shimmering trophy adorning their respective cabinets - have what it takes to combat, entertain and script an engrossing plotline of their own.

When: SRH vs RR, Match 2, IPL 2025, March 23, 03:30 PM IST

Where: Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad

What to expect: Runs and thunderstorms. The Indian Meteorological Department-Hyderabad have issued a yellow alert for thunderstorms with lightning and gusty winds (30-40 kmph) in several parts of Telangana including Hyderabad from Saturday to Monday. That said, there's no prediction for rain on match day.

Head to head: SRH have the upper hand overall, winning 11 of the 20 matches between the two sides. RR have only won once at Hyderabad's home in five attempts. That tally came very close to doubling last season, only for them to fall short by one run in a last-ball thriller.

Team Watch:

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Injury/Unavailability: The 2024 finalists have a clean bill of health, with Pat Cummins and Nitish Reddy coming through to be ready from the beginning.

Tactics & Match-ups: SRH have the spin-smashing arsenal all over their top-order to make it a tough re-initiation into the IPL for Wanindu Hasaranga. The Sri Lankan spinner, who was coincidentally picked by SRH last season but couldn't feature due to an injury, comes up against the team with the highest-ever strike rate against spin in a single IPL edition - 161.43 in 2024.

While Abhishek Sharma has nearly struck at 200 against spin since IPL 2023, his opening partner Travis Head has gone at 164.51, while being even more menacing against pace. SRH then have two middle-order batters in Nitish Reddy and Heinrich Klaasen, who both strike at more than 180 against turn in this period. Hasaranga, with the joint-most T20 wickets since 2024, has the experience and ability to push back and reclaim some balance in an otherwise one-sided match-up.

Probable XII: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan , Nitish Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen, Abhinav Manohar, Sachin Baby/Aniket Verma, Pat Cummins, Harshal Patel, Adam Zampa, Mohammed Shami, Rahul Chahar/Jaydev Unadkat

Rajasthan Royals

Injury/Unavailability: Samson has confirmed that he hasn't fully recovered from his finger injury, and will not lead the team in the first three fixtures. Riyan Parag will take over, with Samson featuring as a pure batter. Given the injury is to his finger, RR could swap him in and out as an impact player.

Tactics & Match-ups: With the option of playing five Indian batters in the top-six, RR have flexibility with regards to their overseas bowling combinations. Hyderabad was a graveyard for spinners last season, which should prompt them to go with only one of their two Sri Lankan options in Hasaranga. SRH will field a left-heavy top-order but Hasaranga has a googly that he uses generously to mitigate the drawbacks of the match-up.

RR had the best PowerPlay bowling unit in 2024 in terms of average (27.48) and economy rate (8.24), putting Afghanistan's left-arm quick Fazalhaq Farooqi front and centre of carrying the torch ahead in that phase even as the team has a new-look bowling attack. Since 2024, Farooqi has 45 PowerPlay wickets in the format - the best tally for that phase.

Probable XII: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson, Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, Shubham Dubey, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jofra Archer, Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep Sharma, Fazalhaq Farooqi

Did you know:

- Sanju Samson averages 52.70 and strikes at 162.65 in T20s at the Hyderabad venue. He has 527 runs in 12 innings there, including two fifties and as many centuries.

- In his last two seasons (2022 and 2023), Mohammed Shami picked 28 PowerPlay wickets in 33 matches, and conceded runs at just 7.08. In the season when the impact player rule was first introduced (IPL 2023), he conceded runs at 7.50 in the first six overs.

What they said:

"Just don't be the team that concedes 300," Daniel Vettori's simplistic plans for his bowlers in another impact-player fuelled-season.

"I think after my second year of IPL (captaincy) when we reached the finals (2022), I was thinking I am not going to be the captain of Rajasthan Royals forever. So, there has to be someone who is going to come and someone will have to be ready after I leave or after I stop being captain. So, I think myself and the whole franchise have developed lot of leaders in the team. For the next 3 games, we decided that Riyan Parag is ready and capable to lead the side," Sanju Samson on RR captaincy.

Squads:

Sunrisers Hyderabad Squad: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Abhinav Manohar, Sachin Baby, Pat Cummins(c), Harshal Patel, Adam Zampa, Mohammed Shami, Rahul Chahar, Jaydev Unadkat, Kamindu Mendis, Zeeshan Ansari, Wiaan Mulder, Atharva Taide, Simarjeet Singh, Eshan Malinga, Aniket Verma

Rajasthan Royals Squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson, Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag(c), Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel(w), Shubham Dubey, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jofra Archer, Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep Sharma, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Maheesh Theekshana, Kwena Maphaka, Ashok Sharma, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Kunal Singh Rathore