IPL 2020: Sunrisers Hyderabad's Team of the Decade

The Indian Premier League's auction for the next season is just a few days away and the final shortlist of names has already been revealed. While there is enough time for the auction, it would be interesting to look at Sunrisers Hyderabad's best XI of this decade.

This would be the apt time for that as not only is the decade coming to an end but Sunrisers Hyderabad are one of the youngest teams in the IPL. Ever since SRH replaced the bankrupt Deccan Chargers for the 2014 season, the southern side has always punched above its weight.

Hyderabad have particularly consistent in the last four years with the team even going on to lift the title in 2016. They also came very close in 2018 but had end to second-best to a rampant Chennai Super Kings outfit.

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Given how successful they have been in these seven years, it is obvious that a number of players would have played an integral part in the team's success. So, let us look at such players and form the best SRH side for this decade.

Note: We will go in with the usual IPL rules of having 7 Indians and 4 overseas players.

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Openers

#1 David Warner

David Warner celebrating his century in the twelfth edition of the IPL

Probably Sunrisers Hyderabad's best-ever player, the short and gritty Aussie opener David Warner will definitely be one of the first name's on the team-sheet. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that David Warner has had his best IPL years with Sunrisers Hyderabad. After all, Warner has notched up a humongous 3271 runs in just 71 matches.

The filtered stats become even more amazing as the southpaw has scored 34 fifties and two hundreds out of those 71 matches. Incredibly, Warner has also scored more than 600 runs for the past three seasons in which he has participated. Be it Shikhar Dhawan until IPL 2018 or Jonny Bairstow earlier this year, Warner has also found a lot of success with his opening partners and this is reflected in the fact that the Aussie has been involved in 17 100-run partnerships for SRH.

#2 Shikhar Dhawan

Shikhar Dhawan had a fruitful time at Sunrisers Hyderabad for six seasons

Partnering Warner at the top will be the successful Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan. Just like Warner, it could also be said that Shikhar Dhawan produced his best IPL years while being associated with Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Although, Dhawan moved to Delhi Capitals ahead of the 2019 season, his contribution to SRH can't be overlooked. In fact, Dhawan is the second highest run-scorer in SRH's 7-year history with 2768 runs from 91 matches. While he was there with SRH, Dhawan complemented the aggressive Warner very well by executing the role of sheet anchor to perfection. Without any sort of doubt, this combination of Warner and Dhawan could be termed a huge success.

Middle Order

Kane Williamson (Captain)

The calm and composed Kane Williamson will lead the Sunrisers Hyderabad team

Sunrisers Hyderabad's current captain and smiling assassin, Kane Williamson, will be the second foreigner and he will occupy the vital No.3 spot. Although there have been several question marks over Williamson's role in T20 cricket, the Kiwi and SRH skipper has done really well to score 1302 runs at a very good strike rate of 135.06.

Williamson stood tall both as a captain and also as a batsman when David Warner was deemed ineligible to play the eleventh season due to the ball tampering saga. In that season, Williamson amassed 735 runs to end up as the highest run-getter in the tournament. With a sound player like Williamson to follow Warner and Dhawan, SRH's top 3 look really strong.

Jonny Bairstow

SRH fans will be hoping that Jonny Bairstow can replicate his debut season exploits again and again.

It was always a difficult call to choose between Mustafizur Rahman and Jonny Bairstow for one of the overseas spots but the latter edges out the former as SRH have traditionally had a very thin-looking middle-order.

If SRH had an additional Indian middle-order option, Mustafizur would have definitely featured as the Bangladeshi pacer was one of the main reasons for the team's title win in 2016 with 17 wickets to his credit.

Moving past Mustafizur, it would be only fair to talk quite a bit about Jonny Bairstow as the Englishman made quite an impression in his debut IPL season earlier this year. Even though he was only available for 10 matches, Bairstow formed a potent partnership with David Warner as the duo kept on piling runs at the top. Bairstow, on his own, scored 445 runs and this included a century along with two fifties.

With Warner and Bairstow's running between the wickets being one of the highlights of the twelfth edition of the IPL, SRH fans would be eagerly waiting for the pair to join forces yet again next year.

Manish Pandey

Albeit a bit late, Manish Pandey started to show some consistency for SRH in the last edition

Perhaps he has not been as consistent as one would have wished Manish Pandey to be in the IPL but he still comes across as the best option to bat at No.5. Just like how he has been in his limited opportunities at the international level, Pandey has been hit and miss in the IPL too.

However, Pandey did show what he is capable of during the second half of this year's IPL. After being dropped for a few matches due to poor performances, Pandey ended the season very well with 83* (vs CSK), 61 (vs RR) and 71* in a thrilling match against Mumbai Indians.

Wicket-Keeper

Naman Ojha

A lack of batting depth helps Naman Ojha pip Wriddhiman Saha in this team.

Another position which was tightly contested is the wicket-keeper's spot as SRH have had two differently skilled glovesmen in their short history. While Naman Ojha was more known for his batting ability, India's Test wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha is often appreciated for his work behind the stumps.

As mentioned earlier, SRH don't have great batting depth and that forces us to go for Naman Ojha's ability to add some useful runs. Ojha has had some of his best knocks in the IPL while playing in the top-order but such a luxury won't be available in this star-studded SRH outfit.

To his credit, Ojha did reasonably well to score 584 runs in 39 innings for SRH and that makes him the 6th highest run-scorer in the team's history.

Spinners

Rashid Khan

Rashid Khan has been a trump card ever since he made his debut in 2017

The Afghan flag-bearer of T20 cricket, Rashid Khan, will slot in as one of the two spinners in this Sunrisers Hyderabad team. When SRH acquired the services of the then-unknown Rashid Khan ahead of the 2017 IPL season, there were several people wondering why the franchise was taking a gamble on an associate cricketer.

But three years down the line, Rashid joining SRH has gone down as one of the best investments by an IPL franchise in recent years. With 55 wickets in 46 matches, Rashid is already SRH's second highest wicket-taker in the team's IPL history. Rashid's performances in the IPL catapulted him to global stardom with the leg-spinner featuring as an important weapon for several T20 teams around the world. Apart from his leg-spin, Rashid has also come up with some superb cameos with the bat every now and then while being a constant menace in the outfield.

Although the 21-year-old had a poor season earlier this year, SRH retained him for the next season and that shows the level faith that the team management has in their strike bowler.

Amit Mishra

Amit Mishra deceived a lot of batsmen with his flight and guile during his best years

Joining Rashid Khan as his spin twin will be the wily old Amit Mishra, someone who has built up an incredible record in the IPL over several years.

Before Rashid Khan entered the scene, it was the combination of Amit Mishra and Karn Sharma that stifled opposition teams during the middle overs. In the title winning 2016 IPL season, Mishra was superb, picking 13 wickets in 14 matches.

Although both Rashid and Mishra are attacking leg-spinners when compared to someone like Karn Sharma, both of them have different styles of bowling. This variety will certainly trouble a lot of teams.

Pacers

Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Bhuvneshwar Kumar's T20 bowling nous has improved by leaps and bounds due to his time at SRH

One of the main reasons for many terming SRH as a bowling-heavy team, fast bowling spearhead Bhuvneshwar Kumar has become a fan favourite for the one-time IPL champion due to his consistent performances over the years.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar has built up an enviable record for SRH with 109 scalps in 86 matches. Twenty-three of those wickets came in a stellar 2016 season as Bhuvneshwar topped the bowling charts for that particular season and this also meant that his side SRH went on to win the title eventually.

The one aspect that makes Bhuvneshwar special is the fact that he has maintained an outstanding economy rate of 7.41 even after regularly bowling the tough overs during the beginning and end of a season. It is his time at SRH that helped Bhuvneshwar Kumar develop into a superb death overs bowler with experts regularly appreciating his ability to execute pin-point yorkers.

Ashish Nehra

In spite of being out of national reckoning, Ashish Nehra put in impressive performances for SRH and CSK to make a comeback to the Indian team

Many used to say T20 cricket is a young man's game but that has completely changed over the last few years with more and more veterans coming up with superb performances in cricket's youngest format. One such veteran is the left-arm pacer Ashish Nehra. Although Nehra only played 14 matches, he did reasonably well by picking up 17 wickets.

The left-arm pacer adds more variety for this attack as Nehra can be predominantly used as a new-ball option.

Siddarth Kaul

If anything, Siddarth Kaul can be best described as an effective bowler who has always given his best.

Finally, medium-pacer Siddarth Kaul will round off Sunrisers Hyderabad's team of the decade. If any team wants to see a perfect example of a team using the available resources in the best possible way, it would be SRH's utilization of Siddarth Kaul.

Not particularly known for his pace, Kaul developed variations like the knuckle ball and back of the hand delivery and this helped SRH to effectively employ him as a third seamer or first change option on many occasions. A high economy rate of 8.46 runs per over would worry a lot of people but it also reflects the fact that Kaul has been regularly used a death overs bowler.

All said and done, a tally of 43 wickets in 34 matches which places him at 3rd position in the list of highest wicket-takers for SRH certainly warrants a place for Siddarth Kaul.