SunRisers Hyderabad have been rage-baiting Indian cricket fans since 2024. Not just with their results, but with the way they have chosen to play, often sticking to an ultra-aggressive approach even when conditions suggested otherwise. Since the advent of the Impact Player rule, SRH have figured out that there was no point in scoring middling targets of 170-180 runs. Either you go hell for leather and hit upwards of 230-240, or you get bowled out trying.
Led by Pat Cummins, SRH figured out early in 2024 that there was no point in playing safe. The think tank knew that in the era of eight specialist batters in a team line-up, even a competitive total of 190 runs was not enough. So, in most matches played over the last two seasons, SRH tried to go all-out attack, targeting a mega total regardless of conditions.
And there was perhaps a good reason for that. A simple reflection of the previous season reveals that SRH scored between 140-190 runs while batting first in five matches; they lost all of them. The only games that SRH won while batting first came when they scored upwards of 230 runs. The pattern was hard to ignore.
However, what angered the fans was their batting approach on pitches that were clearly tricky in nature. When wickets clearly did not look suitable for high totals, SRH continued with their hammer-and-tongs method. No surprises that their method backfired, and the team was either bowled out or restricted to between 120-165 runs four times last season – all games that they lost.
But a bullish SRH stuck to their process. Pat Cummins and head coach Daniel Vettori were hell-bent on applying their philosophy and chasing the near-unattainable mark of 250 in every single match. It meant that after winning their opening game, SRH lost four on the trot, getting pegged back early last season.
But the thing with rage-baiting is that it only works for so long. And SunRisers realised that deep into the season, when they were pushed into a do-or-die situation – when they had to finally adjust.
Waking up very late from their slumber, SRH played their final four games with more sensibility, winning the last three. They would have won four on the trot, but their home game against Delhi Capitals was washed out by rain, at a time when SRH needed just 134 runs to win the contest.
That late correction is what makes this season interesting.
Would this season be different? Will the SunRisers peak at the right time this season?
Led by Ishan Kishan, who has been handed the mantle of leadership in the absence of Pat Cummins, SRH certainly lack the killer vibe this season. A happy go lucky guy since his Mumbai Indians days, Kishan did well as the captain of Jharkhand in the domestic season, but his ability to keep calm under pressure in tough situations is still unproven.
When the mantle of leadership is inexperienced, a team only survives if they rally around each other and extract the best out of themselves. Which means that the key to the team doing well falls solely on the squad that SRH have built this season, and how well they respond to situations when Plan A inevitably fails.
A squad that was built on a rather unique, borderline weird auction strategy.
SRH’S NEAR-MISSES IN IPL AUCTION
Kaviya Maran’s franchise entered the auction pool with a decent budget of Rs 25.50 crore. The targets in mind – an elite fast bowler, a lead spinner, and a couple of middle-order Indian reinforcements who could provide the team with some batting back-up.
The team lost four key bids in the auction last season: Auqib Nabi, Ravi Bishnoi, Kartik Sharma and Prashant Veer.
Bishnoi, the lead spinner, was the first to slip away from SRH’s hands. SRH’s final bid for Bishnoi was Rs 7 crore. The spinner was bought by Rajasthan Royals for Rs 7.20 crore.
Auqib Nabi was next. SRH bid for the pacer 16 times, eventually letting go at Rs 8.20 crore. Nabi was bought by Delhi Capitals for Rs 8.40 crore.
Uncapped Indian stars Prashant Veer and Kartik Sharma were next, both going to Chennai Super Kings for Rs 14.20 crore – record money for uncapped Indians. SRH’s final bid for both? Rs 14 crore.
With their favoured players out of hand, SRH resorted to Plan B, which was to buy players either they had scouted or players who had done well in their nets before.
This meant that SRH bought players like Krains Fuletra, Shivang Kumar – also known as Madhya Pradesh’s Noor Ahmad – Shivam Mavi and Praful Hinge in their line-up.
This freed up the budget to get an overseas all-rounder, where they splurged money on Liam Livingstone (Rs 13 crore), which was perhaps a questionable choice.
But what did the buys solve?
Arguably not a lot, lol. This only means that SRH will have to trust their uncapped stars to pull their weight in this edition of the competition. If the signings do bring in the element of surprise, SRH will be a force to reckon with in the early half of the season.
But if they do not click, which more often than not is the case in top-tier cricket, SRH are going to have a miserable time this season.
SRH FULL SQUAD
Retained Players: Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, Brydon Carse, Eshan Malinga, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Heinrich Klaasen, Ishan Kishan, Jaydev Unadkat, Kamindu Mendis, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Pat Cummins, Smaran Ravichandaran, Travis Head, Zeeshan Ansari
Auction Buys: Salil Arora (Rs 1.50 cr), Shivang Kumar (Rs 30 lakh), Liam Livingstone (Rs 13 cr), Jack Edwards (Rs 3 cr)*, Amit Kumar (Rs 30 lakh), Krains Fuletra (Rs 30 lakh), Sakib Hussain (Rs 30 lakh), Onkar Tarmale (Rs 30 lakh), Praful Hinge (Rs 30 lakh), Shivam Mavi (Rs 75 lakh)
*Jack Edwards was replaced by David Payne for Rs 1.5 crore
SRH’S PLAYERS TO WATCH OUT FOR
The army of uncapped stars will certainly be the group to look out for at SunRisers Hyderabad this season. The likes of Harsh Dubey and Aniket Verma have already played last time around and will be more familiar with the team’s proceedings.
Smaran Ravichandran had a strong outing with Karnataka this season and is being touted as the next prolific run-scorer in the middle overs. He is an all-format talent and could be given a go in the line-up if someone like Aniket Verma is not able to step up this season.
Krains Fuletra outwitted Heinrich Klaasen as a net bowler last season. The batter was so impressed that SRH bought Fuletra in the 2026 auction.
Salil Arora, batting in the SRH practice game, smashed five sixes in five balls. The right-hander is a middle-order batter with a penchant for big hitting.
But it is possible that he remains an Impact Player option at best.
And that brings us to the problem that SRH have – if an uncapped Salil Arora can hit five consecutive sixes, one wonders, what will the rest of the teams, with world-class batters, do to SunRisers Hyderabad’s bowling this season?
PAT CUMMINS: ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
And that means that we have to talk about the elephant in the room, which we have been avoiding for so long.
Is captain Pat Cummins, the person SRH rallied around for the last two seasons, even fit to play?
Cummins missed a large chunk of the team’s pre-season and has confirmed that he will not be fit to play at least till the middle of the IPL.
This means that SRH will be missing a lot of experience in the bowling unit. And the existing options in Jaydev Unadkat, Harshal Patel and Shivam Mavi are highly unlikely to fill that hole.
Which means that someone like Nitish Kumar Reddy, at SRH since 2023, will need to raise his level and shoulder some responsibility. He did pick up a hat-trick in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, but his bowling credentials continue to remain questionable at the IPL level.
So, where does that bring us?
To the rage-baiting, of course. SRH have to score either 240 runs or risk losing the game. That’s it. That perhaps sums up the expectations from SRH this season.
SRH Probable XI:
Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (c, wk), Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Liam Livingstone, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Brydon Carse/Ehsan Malinga, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Shivam Mavi/Jaydev Unadkat
Impact Players: Salil Arora or Krains Fuletra
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