The Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise were expected to turn over a new leaf with the Mega Auction and IPL 2022. However, the season has not started off as well as they’d have liked with a couple of defeats in as many games.
SRH play Chennai Super Kings next, who are also yet to register their first points in the season. Who will break the duck?
Meanwhile, SRH lost the opening game by 61 runs against Rajasthan Royals and then by 12 runs against one of the new franchises in the tournament in Lucknow Super Giants.
Among the aspects that have hurt the SRH side a lot is the fact that there hasn’t been a solid replacement for the talismanic David Warner, who is now in the Delhi Capitals side. Elsewhere, the Indian contingent too have found it hard to get their act going.
No Warner Replacement
After parting ways with David Warner last season, SRH were expected to bring in a big scoring batter to support captain Kane Williamson, but that hasn’t happened and the pressure might just be telling on the New Zealand stalwart.
While Williamson has not been at his most consistent in recent years in the IPL, his class and abilities are well documented. He’s only scored 18 in the two games so far, at the top of the order, a position he isn’t very familiar with either.
The SRH batting also, almost always, featured Jonny Bairstow as well, but the side have not, yet, been able to replace those players. That has caused SRH quite a bit of concern as the Indian contingent including Abhishek Sharma and Rahul Tripathi have not got the runs, and Washington Sundar has not had the biggest impact either. Sundar played a 14-ball 40 in the first game, but hasn’t kicked on from then on in.
Overseas batters Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran too have not been the most dynamic, and have quite the task to replicate the kind of impact Warner and Bairstow had.
The batters will really have to step it up from here on in for SRH as they don’t have very dynamic options either.
No Support for Bhuvneshwar
While it is still early days, SRH’s bowling has also seemed to be a source of concern for the team management, apart from Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who has found his rhythm. But unfortunately, he’s not had the wickets to show.
For SRH, it is the left arm pacer T Natarajan, who leads the charts after the first couple of games for wickets.
But while Natarajan and Bhuvneshwar have mostly got things right, the young but fast Umran Malik has gone a for a fair few runs in the final stages of the innings. In both the games, he’s conceded 78 runs from 7 overs and has also bagged a couple of wickets.
Then there is Romario Shepherd, the bowling all-rounder, who adds more value with the big hits lower down the order than with the ball in hand.
SRH have the likes of Marco Jansen and Kartik Tyagi available too, can they help shore things up for them?
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