Abhishek Sharma departs on first-ball golden duck as Archer silences Hyderabad crowd - WATCH

SunRisers Hyderabad’s poster boy, Abhishek Sharma, departed on a first-ball golden duck against Rajasthan Royals in the home game in IPL 2026 on Monday (Apr 13). SRH’s top-scorer in the previous game against Punjab Kings, Abhishek, got out playing a cut short off Royals’ ace quick Jofra Archer, with the ball finding the fielder at wider third man. Placed perfectly for that shot only, Archer’s plan did wonders as the touring Royals got off to a flying start at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.

Coming off a brilliant outing in Mullanpur the other day, where he scored a brilliant 28-ball 74, smashing eight sixes and five fours, Abhishek was bound to make it count in the franchise’s second home game this season. However, that did not work, as the left-handed opener failed to open his account against the high-flying Royals.

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Meanwhile, the Royals won the toss and asked the home team to bat first. While Rajasthan made two changes to their playing XI, with Tushar Deshpande and Lhuan-dre Pretorius replacing Brijesh Sharma and Shimron Hetmyer, respectively, the home team also made the same number of changes to their line-up. SRH brought in seamer Praful Hinge as one of the two players, benching the two Indian pacers, Jaydev Unadkat and Harshal Patel.

Also read | IPL 2026: Blow to Mumbai Indians as Rohit Sharma set for scans, doubtful for PBKS clash - Report

Check out the team sheets –

Rajasthan Royals bowling-first XI - Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Riyan Parag (captain), Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Sandeep Sharma, Ravi Bishnoi and Tushar Deshpande

RR bench - Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravi Singh, Shubham Dubey, Brijesh Sharma

Sunrisers Hyderabad batting-first XI - Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (captain & wk), Heinrich Klaasen, Salil Arora, Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Shivang Kumar, Eshan Malinga and Praful Hinge

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SRH bench - R Smaran, Sakib Hussain, Liam Livingstone, Shivam Mavi, Harshal Patel

Meanwhile, Travis Head and Ishan Kishan pulled SRH out of a dizzy start, adding 55 for the second wicket inside the first six overs before RR captain Riyan Parag dismissed Head on 18 off 18 balls.

Gautam Sodhi

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