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Sunrisers Hyderabad were dealt a huge blow when a hip injury ruled their primary right-arm fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar out of IPL 2020. The Uttar Pradesh-based pacer had picked up the injury during his team's match against the Chennai Super Kings.
Kumar missed the subsequent match between SRH and MI at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium before learning that he would no longer play in IPL 2020. The Sunrisers Hyderabad have roped in uncapped left-arm seamer Prithvi Raj Yarra as Bhuvneshwar's replacement.
Even though the 22-year-old pace bowler does not possess as much experience as Bhuvneshwar Kumar, he can prove to be a substantial addition to the SRH fast-bowling attack. Here are the five things you should know about Prithvi Raj Yarra before he plays his first game in IPL 2020.
5. IPL 2020 is not the first time Prithvi Raj Yarra has earned a contract from a franchise
Prithvi Raj Yarra had entered the IPL 2019 auction at a base price of ₹20 lakh, and Kolkata Knight Riders signed him for the base amount. The 2-time IPL winners handed him his maiden IPL cap against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
The left-arm fast bowler played only two games for the Kolkata-based franchise in which he leaked 57 runs in five overs at a huge economy rate of 11.40. Subsequently, KKR dropped him from the playing XI and released him before the IPL 2020 auction.
Click here to see IPL points table list 2020.
4. David Warner is Prithvi Raj Yarra's only IPL wicket
As mentioned above, Prithvi Raj Yarra played his debut IPL game against his current IPL team, Sunrisers Hyderabad. The left-arm fast bowler dismissed the Orange Army's destructive opening batsman David Warner in that contest.
Batting first at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Kolkata Knight Riders posted a decent score of 159/8 on the board. The opening duo of Warner and Jonny Bairstow almost sealed the deal for the home team with a 131-run opening stand.
However, Warner had to depart to the pavilion at 67 after Prithvi Raj Yarra disturbed his stumps. In his next game against the Rajasthan Royals, Prithvi bowled a couple of wicketless overs.
3. Prithvi Raj Yarra has picked up a 3-wicket haul in each of his last five innings
Indian cricketers did not play any competitive tournament during the COVID-19 break before IPL 2020. Prithvi Raj Yarra was out of action for quite a while, but the southpaw was in terrific form during the 2019-20 domestic season.
In his last five innings, Prithvi had figures of 3/51, 3/37, 3/26, 3/45, and 3/53 in three first-class matches for Andhra. The Duggirala-based bowler has scalped 39 wickets in just 11 First-Class games at a brilliant average of 21.51, proving that he can be a wicket-taking option for SRH in IPL 2020.
2. He made his List-A debut in the Vijay Hazare Trophy quarterfinals
The Vijay Hazare Trophy is considered to be the premier List-A competition in India. Andhra included debutant Prithvi Raj Yarra in their playing XI for the high-profile quarterfinal match against Hyderabad in 2018.
Generally, teams prefer using a tried and tested combination for the knockout stage, but the left-arm fast bowler did not disappoint on debut as he picked up two wickets for his team.
Unfortunately, Andhra could not win that match, but Prithvi Raj Yarra soon became a top bowler for the side. He was the highest wicket-taker for Andhra in the last edition of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Besides, on his T20 debut against Jharkhand, Prithvi dismissed two of his current SRH teammates, Virat Singh and Shahbaz Nadeem.
1. MS Dhoni trained with him before India's tour of England and Ireland in 2018
The Indian cricket team had traveled to the United Kingdom in June 2018 for a full-fledged tour of England. MS Dhoni had retired from Tests then, but he was actively playing ODIs and T20Is for India.
Just a few days before the squad departed for Ireland, MS Dhoni was sweating hard in the nets, and one of the bowlers who helped him with his training was Prithvi Raj Yarra. The newest member of SRH's IPL 2020 squad had shared a photograph with the Chennai Super Kings captain on his Instagram account and captioned the image as follows:
"Practiced three days with the best man! Learnt a lot."
It will be interesting to see if he gets a chance to play against MS Dhoni in IPL 2020 when SRH crosses swords with CSK again.
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