Sunrisers Hyderabad made their IPL debut in the year 2013, and haven’t really been impressive in spite of having plucked some reasonably decent talent. Having been part of the T20 league for the last three seasons, and having gained some experience, the owners of Hyderabad would hope that the team can now stand up and deliver. Hyderabad will be led by the aggressive Aussie opener David Warner, who was the standout batsman in the last season of the IPL, even as the others around him struggled. Warner would we keen to lead from the front, and would hope he gets desired support from the rest.
Star batsmen: As mentioned above, Warner will be among the key players for Hyderabad. If he gets going again, the team should make an impression. But, Warner will seek support from a few others. Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan should open the batting with Warner. He played some decent knocks last season. But, like with India, he hasn’t been consistent for Hyderabad as well. That would worry Hyderabad. But, they have Kane Williamson, who batted superbly in the World T20. Eoin Morgan had a poor World T20, but he will be expected to do well. Among Indians, there is Tirumalasetti Suman, who has IPL experience.
Star bowlers: Hyderabad are slightly weak in the bowling. They will be heavily dependent on Ashish Nehra, who made a surprise comeback into the Indian T20 team ahead of the World T20. Hyderabad have also chosen Trent Boult, who was one of stars of last year’s World Cup. In addition, there is Mustafizur Rahman, who has been extremely impressive for Bangladesh since having made his debut. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun and Barinder Sran, who made his debut in Australia, are the other pace options in Hyderabad’s kitty.
All-round prowess: Hyderabad have taken a big risk by including Yuvraj Singh in the team, again by shelling out a lot of crores for the all-rounder. For one, Yuvraj is injured, and has been ruled out of the event for the first two weeks. Even otherwise, it was clear in the matches that he has played for India since comeback that he is not the force he once was, but he used his experience to take India out of tricky situations. Apart from Yuvraj, they will look up to Aussie Moises Henriques to make an impression. Ashish Reddy and Ben Cutting are other options they have.
Past performances: Sunrisers made a decent IPL debut in 2013, finishing at number four in the playoffs round. However, in the next two seasons, they were eliminated in the group stages. In both 2014 and 2015 they finished sixth out of eight.
--By A Cricket Analyst
