Note: This article was originally published when the player retention list was announced.
Sunrisers Hyderabad have been one of the rare teams in the Indian Premier League that have always seemed to have a stronger bowling as compared to its batting. And don’t expect that to change radically in the coming season.
The absence of David Warner hit them last season – given how consistent he has been for them as a batsman and also how well he led as captain – but they still managed to top the league stage (equal on points with CSK but better in terms of NRR). Still there were parts of the game where the explosiveness of Warner could have made a big difference.
Tom Moody has been a steady head for the Sunrisers and that has lent some solid consistency to the outfit. They have kept the core of the unit that has done so brilliantly for them – it means they don’t need to rebuild from scratch. And that is always a good thing.
Retention details / remaining purse:
Retained: Basil Thampi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Hooda, Manish Pandey, T Natarajan, Ricky Bhui, Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul, Shreevats Goswami (wk), Khaleel Ahmed, Yusuf Pathan, Billy Stanlake, David Warner, Kane Williamson, Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi.
Released: Sachin Baby, Tanmay Agarwal, Wriddhiman Saha, Chris Jordan, Carlos Brathwaite, Alex Hales, Bipul Sharma, Mehdi Hasan.
Traded in: Abhishek Sharma, Vijay Shankar, Shahbaz Nadeem (from Delhi Daredevils).
Traded out: Shikhar Dhawan (to Delhi Daredevils).
Salary cap available: Rs 9.70 crore.
SRH team breakdown
| Batsmen | All-rounders | Bowlers | Wicket-keepers |
|---|---|---|---|
| David Warner | Shakib al-Hasan | Shahbaz Nadeem | Shreevats Goswami |
| Kane Williamson | Vijay Shankar | T Natarajan | |
| Manish Pandey | Deepak Hooda | Basil Thampi | |
| Abhishek Sharma | Rashid Khan | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | |
| Yusuf Pathan | Mohammad Nabi | Siddarth Kaul | |
| Ricky Bhui | Khaleel Ahmed | ||
| Billy Stanlake | |||
Strengths
They will have Warner back this season but because they have let go of Shikhar Dhawan (traded to Delhi) and Wriddhiman Saha, one can expect their focus in the auction next month to be an opening batsmen (preferably Indian, given that they already have four quality overseas stars in Warner, Kane Williamson, Shakib al-Hasan and Rashid Khan) and an additional wicketkeeper as backup for Shreevats Goswami.
The Dhawan trade to the Delhi Daredevils brought Abhishek Sharma, a hard-hitting middle-order batsman; Vijay Shankar, an all-rounder; and Shahbaz Nadeem, a left-arm spinner into the set-up. On paper, it seems like a good trade-off. Shankar will add to the balance of the squad and Nadeem is established at the IPL level.
Their bowling has always been solid and expect that to continue.
Weaknesses
The batting at times seemed top heavy and it just didn’t have enough firepower to beat the big guns when in mattered. They won at times last season despite not posting great totals but put that down to the bowling’s strength. Warner coming back solves part of the problem but they have lost the consistent Dhawan, so that effectively brings them back to square one.
Players to look out for in auction
SRH have Rs 9.70 crore available and just five slots (3 India, 2 Overseas) to fill. Only CSK – with just 2 Indian slots to fill – have fewer openings. It shows that this is a team that knows what it wants.
Dhawan gave them quality and consistency at the top of the order. A replacement will pretty much have to do the same. Jason Roy, Shimron Hetmyer and Brendon McCullum may be among those SRH will look to target. Would they look to perhaps give Gautam Gambhir another go? He didn’t have the best of seasons with Delhi but he can still do the trick in the IPL.