IPL 2019: Team Preview - Sunrisers Hyderabad

Sunrisers Hyderabad, the runners-up of IPL 2018, begin IPL 2019 as one of the favourite teams to win the IPL this year. By keeping mostly the same squad intact as the previous year with the exception of Shikhar Dhawan, one of the mainstays of the team, SRH just bought 3 players in the IPL auction. Having traded 3 players in the form of Shahbaz Nadeem, Vijay Shankar and Abhishek Sharma and with the return of David Warner along with the acquisition of Johnny Bairstow with Martin Guptill, SRH have a squad probably stronger than even last year.

Strengths:

Batting: In the previous editions of the IPL, SRH were seen mostly as a side which had better bowling than batting but this year it is different. Having destructive batsmen in the form of David Warner and Johnny Bairstow with reliable middle-order batsmen like Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey and Vijay Shankar, SRH have a batting line-up that can give even the stronger bowling line-ups a run for their money. Even though they cannot play all the foreign batsmen together, they still have the options to rotate them accordingly.

Bowlers and All-rounders: There is no dearth of explosive and experienced bowlers and all-rounders in the ranks. Players like Shakib Al Hasan, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar can be the bowlers who would defend a target of 130 on their given day. Besides them, they have an abundance of Indian bowlers who can play the perfect support to the strike bowlers.

SRH could play any combination with this squad and they would be the team to beat this IPL.

Weakness:

Unavailability and Form of Players: One of the problems that SRH can face is the unavailability of players due to international commitments and injuries. Kane Williamson is already battling an injury which would make him a doubtful starter whereas they can lose players like Johnny Bairstow, Shakib Al Hasan, Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan due to clash with international matches of England, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Form of the players is also a concern as players like Yusuf Pathan and Deepak Hooda have not set the stage on fire for the past couple of seasons and David Warner is returning to such an intense competition after a lengthy ban of 1 year.

Ideal Playing XI:

This XI is chosen on the assumption of unavailability of Kane Williamson for the opening match.

David Warner, Johnny Bairstow, Manish Pandey, Shakib Al Hasan, Vijay Shankar, Yusuf Pathan, Deepak Hooda, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul, Sandeep Sharma.

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