It has been 10 games into the 2015 IPL season, and finally, Sunrisers Hyderabad may have found a winning formula, one that has considerably strengthened their batting, while causing only marginal loss in the bowling.
It’s quite simple – rest the top two international fast bowlers, Dale Steyn and Trent Boult, play an all-Indian pace attack, with Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Praveen Kumar, play the two international allrounders in Moises Henriques and Ravi Bopara, and the two international batsmen, in Eoin Morgan and, of course, captain David Warner.
What this means is that they now have a top five consisting of Shikhar Dhawan and 4 other international players – which really addresses the biggest problem the Sunrisers Hyderabad have had – the fact that they lack an Indian batsman of top quality other than Dhawan. This has resulted in them getting out cheaply once the top two of Dhawan and Warner were back in the pavilion.
So, does this tactical switch weaken their bowling? Certainly it does. Their bowling attack lacks woefully in pace, with Ishant Sharma no longer as fast as he used to be and the two Kumars – Bhuvneshwar and Praveen, both strictly medium paced. This is not an attack that would send shivers down the spine of the opposition and not playing the world’s premier fast bowler, Dale Steyn, does not make sense.
But then, perhaps it does. You never know in IPL, some things work out splendidly and others don’t. It’s not possible to plan how your tournament would work out before it begins. All the best IPL strategies have been designed a couple of weeks or more into the tournament.
Shikhar Dhawan is happy with the new arrangement. Speaking about his partnership with Warner, he says: “It’s been great opening with Davy. It has been comfortable. We both are really good in running between the wickets. Our combination suits both of us and our team. It is good to have two aggressive players batting together – that puts immense pressure on the opposition.”
Sunrisers would be trying everything now to make it to the playoffs and beating Delhi Daredevils is absolutely critical if they are to do that. Both Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Daredevils can make it to the playoffs provided they win the matches they got left. Sunrisers have four and the Daredevils have just three.
For the Daredevils, Yuvraj Singh has been a major disappointment. We all know what he has done in the past and what he is capable of, But in this tournament, he hasn’t done much at all, making just 203 runs from 10 innings with a strike-rate of just 121. That’s not what you would expect from the most expensive player in the IPL.
For Sunrisers Hyderabad, they will expect more from Eoin Morgan, who has had a terrible year of international cricket and is on the brink of being sacked from the England team. So, for Morgan, this IPL may well be his last chance to shine and get noticed. His performances in the IPL so far have been disappointing, having made just 3 fifties in over 30 innings – this has to change, and fast.
Watch Sunrisers Hyderabad take on Delhi Daredevils at 8:00 PM on Saturday, live on Sony Six!
