SRH Team Preview: David Warner must find 'killer instinct' for his underdog, but formidable side

Amid the indisputable domination of the Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Super Kings in the history of the Indian Premier League, there is a team that has all that it takes to be a champion side, except they don’t rise to their best. 

That side is the Sunrisers Hyderabad, and undoubtedly, they will be ruing not winning the elusive title after their first triumph five years ago. The team has started every season as an underdog albeit having all the resources that make a side a world-beating one. 

The list of ingredients that make teams champions such as the presence of explosive opening batsmen, a world-class spinner, pacers who can swing the ball and strike early, Sunrisers have it all. The Hyderabad based franchise have had all of that for some time in their IPL journey and yet they have not been able to shed the ‘underdog’ tag off themselves with a string of middling performances, especially in the middle of a season.

The depth and resilience of the team were established last year when they lost Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mitchell Marsh fairly early in the season and yet they pushed on to reach the playoffs stage of the tournament. 

However, their lack of 'killer instinct' and competitive aggression were found out in the big game against the Delhi Capitals. All the hard work and the fact that they improving with each passing game meant nothing as yet another campaign ended just short of touching that iconic trophy.

David Warner, after a sluggish season at the start, rediscovered his mojo after trying to be an anchor—a role he has taken birth to fulfil while other batsmen such as Wriddhiman Saha and Manish Pandey stepped up their game when the team required them to come good.

Marsh’s injury could well have been a balance threatening blow to the side, but they were smart in going for Jason Holder who proved to be a more effective weapon with the ball and a far more reliable option than Marsh with the bat. As Marsh has pulled himself out of the IPL, the Sunrisers will not sweating over missing him as Holder has done more than enough to earn a starting position in the first XI.

Top-order—spoilt for choices

Unlike last season, when the opening pair of Jonny Bairstow and David Warner struggled for timing and form in the first half of the season, the Sunrisers will relish the prospect of having an in-form Bairstow after a blistering series against India. Warner, too, is coming off with some good runs under his belt in the Marsh Cup in Australia and it augurs well for the side at the start of the season.

However, with the move of going for Jason Roy as a replacement for Marsh, the team management has dropped a hint that an opening pair of Jason Roy and David Warner with Bairstow slotting down to the number four slot in the order can’t be completely ruled out. 

In the last season, the pair of Manish Pandey and Kane Williamson batted at the number three and four positions but with the lack of clarity around Williamson's elbow injury, that order might be rejigged again. 

There is an argument to play Bairstow at number four, where he can go gung-ho from ball one, but will 'The Eagles' take that untested path, that remains to be seen. 

Return of Bhuvneshwar and a confident Natarajan 

Sunrisers’ campaign started derailing in the last season the moment Bhuvneshwar Kumar got ruled out of the tournament with a groin injury. The lay off was a prolonged one but he bounced back resoundingly in the ODI and T20I series against England to give Sunrisers good vibes going into the tournament.

In his absence, Sandeep Sharma took it upon himself to produce the goods and he did wonders from one side in the powerplay. This time around, he will have the luxury of having Bhuvi bowling from the other end, and Sunriers will be hoping to grab the opposition teams by the scruff of their neck in the early phase of the play itself.

Sunrisers also unearthed a real talent in the form of T Natarajan who could produce yorkers at will in the death overs. He was menacing with his consistency and troubled all including the great AB de Villiers with his searing yorkers. 

Having impressed the selectors in IPL and earning an entry into the Indian team across all formats through a spell of good luck, Natarajan will return to his happy-hunting tournament with confidence sky-high. He has performed reasonably well for India in the white-ball formats and was the lynchpin of India’s ODI series win over England.

Sunrisers will have a formidable quartert of bowlers that include Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, Rashid Khan, and T Natarajan, along with the all-around abilities of Jason Holder in the upcoming season. It would be fair to say that if batsmen can put up fighting scores, they can provide stern resistance against any batting line-up in the tournament.

Indian talents

IPL franchises need to be rich in terms of having Indian talents in the team set up to be successful and the Sunrisers pass that test with flying colours as well.

From Manish Pandey at number four position in the batting to the trio of  Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Natarajan, and Sandeep Sharma, Sunriers’s squad is built around richly talented Indian players who could win games on their own.

They have added few more names who have shown glimpses of what they could offer given they are offered consistent opportunities to impress. The two prominent ones are Abdul Samad and Abhishek Sharma, and both are coming on the back of a rich vein of form in the Syed Mushtaq Ali and Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Sunrisers will be backing on them to step up when the big guns fail to provide the team with an impetus to win games and also in providing extra depth when they click in their methods.

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) Squad

Indian players

Abhishek Sharma, Basil Thampi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Manish Pandey, Sandeep Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Shreevats Goswami, Siddarth Kaul, Khaleel Ahmed, T Natarajan, Vijay Shankar, Wriddhiman Saha, Virat Singh, Priyam Garg, Jason Holder, Abdul Samad, Kedar Jadhav, Jagadeesha Suchith.

Overseas players

David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Kane Williamson, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Jason Roy, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman

SRH coaching staff

Head coach – Trevor Bayliss

Director of cricket – Tom Moody

Assistant coach – Brad Haddin

Batting mentor – VVS Laxman

Bowling mentor – Muttiah Muralitharan

Fielding coach – Biju George

Physiotherapist – Theo Kapakoulakis

Physical trainer – Mario Villavarayan

Performance and video analyst – Shrinivas Chandrasekaran

SRH Best XI in IPL 2021

David Warner (C), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Abdul Samad, Jason Holder, Vijay Shankar, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Sandeep Sharma