IPL Sunrisers Hyderabad Preview: SRH bet on youth as they look to rebuild after last year’s disappointment

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)


Captain: Kane Williamson


Coaching Staff: Tom Moody (Head Coach), Dale Steyn (Bowling Coach), Brian Lara (Batting Coach), Muttiah Muralitharan (Spin Bowling Coach), Hemang Badani (Fielding Coach)

Owner: Sun TV Network

best performance: Winner 2016

2021 Performance: finished eighth

shaft
Kane Williamson (captain), Abdul Samad, Umran Malik, Washington Sundar, Nicholas Pooran, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Priyam Garg, Rahul Tripathi, Abhishek Sharma, Kartik Tyagi, Shreyas Gopal, Jagdish Suchith, Aiden Markram, Marco Janssen, Romario Shepherd Shaun Abbott, R Samarth, Shashank Singh, Saurabh Dubey, Vishnu Vinod, Glenn Phillips, Fazlhaq Farooqui

availability of players
Availability of players is not a concern but injury to players. Captain Kane Williamson has been battling an elbow problem for a long time. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been battling one injury or the other for the past few years. Washington Sundar is making a comeback from a hamstring injury during the ODI series against West Indies in February. Their yorker specialist T Natarajan is making a comeback after a long absence due to a knee problem.

batting
Most things went wrong for him last year, both on and off the field. While the team lost 11 out of 14 matches, David Warner lost his captaincy and place in the team. Coach Trevor Bayliss dropped out and there were several changes to the coaching staff. This year has already seen controversy, with assistant coach Simon Katich resigning right after the auction.

In the mega auction, they bet their money on the youth, especially Indians, and will try to set a new model that can help them survive last year’s disappointment. He retained Abdul Samad and brought back Priyam Garg and Abhishek Sharma. He also picked Washington Sundar in the auction.

Rahul Tripathi was a good pick for him. He is underrated but is an experienced IPL hand. Most likely he will open the innings for them and in the absence of an experienced regular opener, they can use Abhishek Sharma at the top. Abhishek offers a left-handed option and bats aggressively.

The middle order will be shared by Williamson, Nicholas Pooran and Aiden Markram. But they have to rely on young Samad and Sundar in the death overs, which doesn’t inspire confidence. So one of the middle order trio should try to bat till the end.

However they have options. If they go with an all-India bowling attack, which they can do, then Glenn Phillips can be used to capitalize on the final quarter of the innings with hard work. And he can keep wickets and bowl off-spin.

bowling
On the bowling side, SRH is going at a brisk pace. They have Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the new ball specialist. He can bowl at any stage of the game but very rarely matches his new ball skills. He has the speed of Umran Malik to dodge the opposition. And then yorker king T Natarajan to take care of the death overs. The tall and talented Marco Jensen is his left-handed substitute. Sean Abbott is a backup option. Romario Shepherd gives him the option of pace all-rounder.

But the exit of the world’s best T20 bowler Rashid Khan has left a void in his spin department. He has signed Karnataka leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal, but he is nowhere near the quality of Rashid. Sundar (off spin) and Abhishek (left arm spin) will share the responsibility of spin.

Probable playing XI
1. Rahul Tripathi, 2. Abhishek Sharma, 3. Kane Williamson, 4. Nicholas Pooran (wk), 5. Aiden Markram/Glenn Phillips, 6. Abdul Samad, 7. Washington Sundar, 8. Marco Janssen, 9. Bhuvneshwar Kumar , 10. T Natarajan, 11. Umran Malik

Originally published at Pen 18