8 IPL teams and their international equivalents

4. Sunrisers Hyderabad – New Zealand

Sunrisers Hyderabad and New Zealand don’t tend to make a lot of noise in their journey. However, they are always found among the top teams at the end of the tournament. This common trait of the two sides makes them each other’s counterparts. Interestingly, both these teams are led by Kane Williamson currently.

Well, many of you might not realise, but New Zealand’s performance in ICC tournaments has been staggering since the last decade. They qualified for the finals of the 50-over World Cup in 2019 and 2015 and went to the semi-finals in the 2011 edition. Apart from that, they made it to the 2016 T20 World Cup semi-finals and are also the finalists of the inaugural ICC World Test Championship. Now, that’s impressive.

Similarly, SRH are also one of the top IPL teams when it comes to consistency. In fact, they are the only side to have qualified for the playoffs in the last five IPL editions (2016 to 2020). However, they haven’t done well in this year’s competition, losing six of their first eight games until the season’s suspension. Hence, they need to win almost all their remaining league-stage games to extend their record.