What Went Wrong For SRH In IPL 2023?

image-lhyxr2ohA dejected Aiden Markram walks back to the pavilion (IPLT20.COM)

Sunrisers Hyderabad’s IPL 2023 campaign launched on a topsy-turvy note before they formed some resistance in the middle stages of the tournament. Their performance, however, dwindled towards the end as the famed ‘Orange Army’ crashed down like a lead balloon to finish at number 10 on the points table.

Led by Aiden Markram, the leader of franchise’ SA20 winning outfit Sunrisers Eastern Cape, the South African failed to replicate the same success with SRH as they claimed their second wooden-spooner IPL tag in three years, this time in a 10-team event.

In this article, we will dissect what exactly went wrong for the Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2023:

What went wrong for SRH?

1. Uncertainty over opening combo

The SRH management tried out as many as seven different opening combinations across their 14 league matches. While Mayank Agarwal remained one constant figure in eight of SRH’s first nine games of the season, his partners kept ranging from Abhishek Sharma to Anmolpreet Singh to Harry Brook.

Notably, only twice throughout the tournament did an SRH opening pair managed to cross the 50-run mark, as repeated failures at the top constantly haunted the franchise in the latter stages of their innings.

The team management found their answer, albeit in their last league game with all their hopes already dashed and title dreams shattered. Up against Mumbai Indians, a young Vivrant Sharma, in his maiden IPL inning, bludgeoned a 140-run stand with veteran Agarwal as SRH found some solace from an otherwise disastrous campaign.

2. Overseas troubles

The performance of Sunrisers Hyderabad’s overseas contingent, sans Heinrich Klaasen, fell way below expectations as evidenced by the results. Skipper Aiden Markram himself had a season to forget, as the burly South African could all but manage just 248 runs at a substandard 22.55 average.

Harry Brook, who “silenced his critics with a century” earlier in the tournament, soon went silent himself as the young Englishman returned with a mere 190 runs to his credit from 11 innings. Remove his match-winning hundred against KKR and the 24-year-old is left with 90 runs from his remaining 10 outings.

While Marco Jansen claimed 10 wickets from eight games, the South African speedster did so while leaking runs at nearly 10 an over. Meanwhile, fellow overseas imports Fazalhaq Farooqi, Akeal Hosein and Glenn Phillips all failed to leave a mark in the limited opportunities they were bestowed upon by the SRH management.

3. Toothless pace attack

Despite featuring the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T. Natarajan, Umran Malik and Marco Jansen in their ranks, the SRH fast-bowling department were rendered toothless by their own shortcomings in a batting-friendly IPL season.

Kumar, who holds a career T20 economy rate of 7.21, conceded runs at 8.33 an over this IPL season.

Malik, who unleashed thunderbolts at will last year, appeared as a pale shadow of his past self this time around. The speedster managed just five wickets from eight IPL 2023 matches in comparison to his 22-wicket performance a year ago.

Natarajan also leaked runs from his end and the left-arm quick could gather just 10 wickets from his 12 league appearances.