Sunrisers Hyderabad has assembled a new squad to recreate the pathway to the IPL glory days
As the caravan of the Indian Premier League is inching towards the kick-off of the 2023 edition, the Orange Army has also turned the preparations in full swing for the showdown.
The 2016 edition winners will be returning to regain lost supremacy in their 11th successive campaign at the Indian top-flight league. ‘Parimatch News‘ brings a detailed squad analysis of the defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad for IPL 16.
Just like the story of every season, the Telangana-based franchise has once again garnered praise for its clever approach at the auction. Their ultimate hunt for the IPL glory will begin on the 2nd of April against the inaugural IPL champions Rajasthan Royals.
However, the familiar face of Tom Moody won’t be part of the coaching staff as the Australian gaffer’s second spell with the Sunrisers lasted for two seasons only. Moody has been replaced by the legendary Brian Lara who received a promotion after serving the franchise as a batting coach in the previous season.
The 53-year-old Trinidadian preceptor will be accompanied by the likes of Simon Helmot, Muttiah Muralitharan, Dale Steyn, Ryan Cook, and Hemang Badani in the high-profile coaching unit.
The SRH franchise has also gone through a major leadership change for the upcoming campaign with the appointment of South African assailant Aiden Markram as a captain. Markram recently led the Sunrisers Eastern Cape side to the glory of becoming the inaugural champions of SA20 and will be coming up with a high spirit for the Indian challenge.
A look at last season’s performance
It was a disastrous campaign for the Orange Army in the previous edition where they failed to make it to the playoffs stages for consecutive seasons. The last time SRH made a playoff appearance was back in 2020 when the franchise was under the leadership of David Warner but everything just went downhill since then.
Sunrisers who were once considered favorites before every season owing to their incredible consistency are now struggling to put up strong contention for the title. Hyderabad kick-started the 2022 season with a bang and thrived into the Top 2 after winning five out of the first seven league fixtures.
At this point, SRH only needed three wins in the rest of the seven matches to claim the qualification ticket but what happened afterwards was something that every Orange Army member would want to forget. They suffered five consecutive losses and only managed to fetch a single victory in the latter half of the season to eventually finish in the eighth position with 12 points.
New signings ahead of the 2023 IPL season
Harry Brook to lead the new dawn of SRH!
The biggest signing for the Orange Army in the 2023 Auctions is the English sensation Harry Brook who will be playing the most vital role in their gameplan. Hyderabad paid a whopping sum of Rs. 13.25 crores to acquire the services of the 24-year-old batter making him the 5th most expensive player of the bidding war. The Yorkshire assailant was part of the England squad that graced the champions’ podium of the 2022 ICC T20 World Cup and has also claimed the PSL laurel with Lahore Qalandars.
Another big name who is going to march the SRH banner for the first time is the former Punjab Kings skipper Mayank Agarwal. The 32-year-old has been part of many prolific rosters in his IPL career spanning 12 years but is still in search of his maiden trophy-winning campaign. Heinrich Klaasen is also making his comeback to the grandest stage of T20 after a three-year halt and is likely to be their first-choice wicketkeeping option.
Adil Rashid will be leading the Sunrisers’ spin attack and has a golden opportunity to finally make his mark at the IPL stage. The Orange Army has high hopes for the English spin-wizard just like his namesake leg-spinner who used to hunt wickets for them a couple of years ago. Meanwhile, the likes of Akeal Hosain, Mayank Markande, and Mayank Dagar will be also accompanying him in the newly assembled spin department.
Predicted Starting XI
Mayank Agarwal, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram ©, Harry Brook, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Washington Sundar, Adil Rashid, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Umran Malik
Strengths
When the fierce pace blends with a scintillant swing
Quality pace attack: Sunrisers are equipped with the most lethal domestic fast-bowling unit in the entire league featuring the names of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Umran Malik and Kartik Singh.
The Indian pace battery of SRH is so strong that the foreign options of Marco Jansen and Fazalhaq Farooqi are not even considered to be contenders for the playing XI. The trio of Bhuvi-Natarajan-Umran was blazing fire for the Orangers in the previous season and had a 64% contribution to the team’s total wickets, a combined tally of 52.
Presence of multiple quality all-rounders: The all-round duo of Abhishek Sharma and Washington Sundar provide immense strength to the team-combination with their disciplined bowling style and explosive batting abilities. Their flexibility to bat at any position also allows the skipper Markram to float the batting order according to the game circumstances.
Weaknesses
Thin batting department: The batting unit of the Telangana-based franchise lacks on-paper strength and the presence of high-profile names suitable for the franchise legacy. The shortage of several quality options that can replace the starters from the substitute bench is evidently visible and may cost them big in the future.
Curse of the overseas skipper: Hyderabad has also placed big money on the newly appointed skipper Aiden Markram who is still yet to prove the mettle of his captaincy on the international level. We have already witnessed many foreign captains failing to deliver in the Indian top-flight T20 league after not being able to identify the strength and weaknesses of domestic players.
Untested spin-bowling unit: SRH has pressed the reboot option to their spin department after they managed to contribute only 15 wickets in the entire 2022 season. However, the newly assembled unit also doesn’t look much stronger and may face challenges if any of the first-choice options suffer an injury crisis midway through the campaign.
Season Prediction
The Sunrisers Hyderabad roster is high-spirited and the Orange Army has also high hopes that Sun will rise again in the City of Nizams after an awaited gap of three years.
Their ultimate aim for the forthcoming campaign will be to follow the success path of Sunrisers Eastern Cape by setting a winning tempo and avoiding bottling in the final stages, unlike their previous attempts. This SRH unit has the utmost potential to stage a remarkable turnaround and be the dark horse again.