Praful Hinge Debuts for SRH Against RR After Punjab Kings Snub

Praful Hinge finally made his Indian Premier League debut for Sunrisers Hyderabad against Rajasthan Royals at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Monday. The Vidarbha pacer had been named at the toss earlier in the season but did not take the field then.

Background to the selection

Hinge had been listed in the XI at the April 11 match in Mullanpur. He was named as a replacement for Jaydev Unadkat at the toss by Ishan Kishan. Despite that, Unadkat returned to bowl after coming on as an Impact substitute for Travis Head, leaving Hinge unused.

Team management confirmed changes ahead of the Hyderabad fixture. Kishan said Hinge would come in and Unadkat would miss out. He also noted Harshal Patel was among the impact players.

Toss and match context

Rajasthan Royals skipper Riyan Parag won the toss and elected to bowl first. Parag highlighted the surface was new to the season and could offer some early help to bowlers. Rajasthan sit top of the IPL 2026 table with eight points from four matches.

Parag announced two alterations to his side. Lhuan-dre Pretorius was handed a debut for the Royals. Brijesh Sharma was left out and Tushar Deshpande came into the eleven. Shimron Heymyer was given a rest.

Line-ups for the game

• Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (wk/c), Heinrich Klaasen, Salil Arora, Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Shivang Kumar, Praful Hinge, Eshan Malinga.
• Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Riyan Parag (c), Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Sandeep Sharma, Ravi Bishnoi, Tushar Deshpande.

What the debut signifies

The selection ends a short controversy after Hinge was previously overlooked at the last moment. The pacer’s inclusion follows discussions about squad depth and impact substitutions. Fans will watch to see how he responds after the Punjab Kings snub earlier in the season.

SRH will hope Hinge adds bowling options in the middle overs. Rajasthan will test him early, given their strong batting top order. The match carries significance for both teams in the early IPL campaign.