Riding on the fire power of their bowlers, Sunrisers Hyderabad played and won some thrilling contests — some of them low-scoring — in their first appearance in the IPl in 2013 but could only go as far as the Eliminator. last year they finished sixth in the eight-team tournament. The slide in the performance was the result of a weak middle-order. In 2013, their outstanding bowling unit and some good batting performances at the top helped them progress to the knockout stages. last year, the top-order again did well with David Warner finishing in the top-five scoring over 500 runs but most of the teams targeted their middle-order.
This year, however, Sunrisers have left no stone unturned to provide some muscles (Eoin Morgan) as well as resilience (Kane Williamson) to the middle-order. Now, with the fire-power of David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan at the top, controlled aggression of Morgan and Ravi Bopara, and sanity of Williamson in the middle, Hyderabad franchise have a balanced batting unit — one that can handle some tough opponents.
Combine that with the international quality bowling provided by Dale Steyn, Trent Boult, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar — arguably the strongest bowling attack of this IPl — and Sunrisers boast off a squad that is not just formidable but also full of options. Now the challenge for these big players would be to live up to the huge expectations that are tagged with their names. But, it seems that Sunrisers didn’t give much thought to acquiring some Indian batting talent with international experience. As it can be observed, they rely too much on overseas players. And you can play only four in a match.
Warner being the captain, there are only three spots to grab. Steyn has been their most consistent bowler in the last two seasons, after Amit Mishra whom they released before the auction, and selects himself in the first eleven leaving room for only two overseas players. If they pick Boult, the in-form bowler, and Morgan, it will leave a hole in the middle-order — the cause of their poor outing last season.
If Warner and Morgan fail initially, the burden will fall on the inexperienced shoulders of lokesh Rahul, Naman Ojha and Hanuma Vihari. The logical solution would be to keep Boult on the bench and include Morgan and Williamson or Bopara. Since they have Bhuvneshwar, Ishant and Praveen for seam bowling options, Boult’s absence won’t hurt them as much as a less batsman in the middle-order may. Also, they’ll miss the services of Mishra, the second-highest wicket-taker in IPl. Karn Sharma and Parvez Rasool, with little international experience, will have to share the spin responsibilities.