"The scale is slightly tilted towards Hyderabad" - Aakash Chopra on SunRisers Hyderabad's IPL 2023 clash against Mumbai Indians

Aakash Chopra feels the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) are the slight favorites heading into their IPL 2023 clash against the Mumbai Indians (MI) in Hyderabad on Tuesday, April 18.

The two sides are eighth and ninth in the points table with four points apiece, with Rohit Sharma and Co. placed higher based on net run rate. Both teams started their campaign in the tournament with defeats in their first two games but have bounced back to register wins in their last two matches.

While previewing the game in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra opined that the SunRisers Hyderabad have a slight edge over the Mumbai Indians, reasoning:

"The scale is slightly tilted towards Hyderabad. Generally, I do a match-up between both sides and check who has the better bowling and tilt slightly towards them because this ground is also like that. It is not the Bangalore ground, where a lot of runs are scored. So better bowling should make a difference."

The former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) player pointed out that SRH have two decent spinners in their bowling lineup, observing:

"There you have Washington Sundar, who can bowl in the powerplay. His numbers are very good against Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma. Then Mayank Markande picks up four-four wickets on this ground."

Chopra added that the SunRisers Hyderabad have a formidable seam-bowling lineup as well, elaborating:

"After that, you have good fast bowling - whether it is Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik, Marco Jansen or T Natarajan. T Natarajan has not picked up wickets thus far but he will get them."

Mayank Markande (6) and Umran Malik (5) have been the SunRisers Hyderabad's most successful bowlers thus far, although the latter has been extremely expensive. T Natarajan has scalped just three wickets in four games and has conceded an average of 10 runs per over.

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"I expect Mayank Agarwal to score some runs" - Aakash Chopra on the SunRisers Hyderabad's batting

Speaking about the SunRisers Hyderabad batting, Aakash Chopra feels Mayank Agarwal needs to deliver the goods for the franchise, stating:

"What do I expect from this game? I expect Mayank Agarwal to score some runs because runs have not come from his bat and if runs don't come from his bat, it will be a problem going forward."

While expecting Heinrich Klaasen to be among the runs, the reputed commentator highlighted that the IPL 2016 champions have depth in batting, elaborating:

"Heinrich Klaasen will score runs. He is a good player. So I feel there will be a little more focus on him. There is depth in batting, there is no doubt about that because Abhishek Sharma has been given a new role and then they have batting till Washington Sundar."

Harry Brook smoked an unbeaten century in SRH's 23-run win in their last game against KKR. Rahul Tripathi and Aiden Markram are the only other players to have scored a half-century for the franchise in IPL 2023 thus far.