IPL 2020: What's going wrong for SRH?

After making it to the playoffs for 4 consecutive seasons, the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) are now on the brink of missing their first playoffs appearance in the IPL since 2016. They are currently in seventh place in the points table with just 3 wins and 6 losses in 9 games so far.

We look at the reasons which have led to below-par performances from SRH in IPL 2020.

1) Manish Pandey's batting form

Manish Pandey was bought for a whopping 11 crore rupees in the 2018 IPL player auction by the Sunrisers Hyderabad, a decision they have been paying for ever since.

Pandey's price tag puts him on par with AB De Villiers and ahead of Delhi Capitals duo Shreyas Iyer and Risabh Pant, all of whom have scored more runs than Pandey in the last 2 IPL seasons.

Manish Pandey is currently 23rd in the 'runs scored' leaderboard with 212 runs in 9 innings. He is behind players like Rahul Tewatia and Marcus Stoinis, both of whom have faced fewer balls than Pandey this season.

Among the top-25 batsmen this season, Pandey has the second-lowest batting average (23.55) and the third-lowest strike-rate (123.25). He also has 4 single-digit scores to his name in 9 games so far.

With SRH's think tank going with young players like Priyam Garg, Abhishek Sharma, and Abdul Samad in the middle order, Manish Pandey was expected to play the experienced hand at number 3. However, he has been anything but that for SRH this season.

2) A lack of intent by the openers during the powerplay

While Manish Pandey takes the majority of the blame among SRH's batsmen this season, the opening duo of David Warner and Jonny Bairstow have also played a huge part in the team's underwhelming performances.

The two players, who are considered to be the bedrock of SRH's batting lineup, have been fairly inconsistent when compared to their performances from last year's IPL. The openers have had just three 50-run partnerships in 9 games so far this season while they had 7 50-run partnerships after the first 9 games last season.

In 6 of the 8 games they've opened together this season, either Warner or Bairstow have lost their wicket before the end of the powerplay. This is poor when compared to IPL 2019, where the SRH duo lost a wicket during the powerplay only on 3 occasions in the team's first 9 games.

In 5 of the 9 games they've played so far, SRH has scored at a rate of 7 runs per over or less during the powerplay.

3) Bowlers conceding too many runs at the death

SRH's famed bowling lineup has a major chink in its armour this season. Ever since hey lost their premier frontline bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar for the rest of the season due to injury, SRH's death overs have become an area to target for opposition batsmen.

In 4 out of the 5 games SRH has played since Bhuvneshwar's injury, they have conceded nearly 12 runs per over at the death overs. They went on to lose all 4 of the games where that happened.

This does not bode well for SRH, who heavily rely on batting first and then choking opposition batting lineups with their stringent bowling for victories.