IPL 2018: Journey of the Sunrisers Hyderabad so far

When the Deccan Chargers’ club was terminated, the Sun Network managed to win the rights for the Hyderabad based franchise in 2012. The team was later named the “Sunrisers Hyderabad“, who played just five seasons in the League, but already had a significant impact on the fans. The 2016 champions have a decent fan base not just in Hyderabad, but also across the country.

The Deccan Chargers had a good fan base when the likes of Rohit Sharma, Andrew Symonds, Adam Gilchrist, Ryan Harris, Herschelle Gibbs etc. were present, but their performances in the fourth and fifth season were below par. This had a significant impact on the crowd attendance as well, but the Sunrisers never faced such problems.

After the Cameron White-led team entered the playoffs in their debut season, Shikhar Dhawan took charge of the captaincy next year. When he failed to deliver, David Warner was appointed the skipper and he took the club to the next level. He led from the front and won them the 2016 edition with an outstanding rendition with the willow. Let’s take a look at how their performances have varied ever since they made their debut.

1. 2013 – 4th Position

The Sunrisers had an inexperienced batting lineup heading into their first season. But once the season started, it was their indomitable bowling unit who did a fantastic job almost every game. The best part about their campaign was the spirit they showed whilst defending low totals. Dale Steyn and Amit Mishra were pivotal for their success and managed to win 10 games out of 16 league games. In the Eliminator against Rajasthan Royals, they lost the game by a narrow margin but it was a great beginning to their story.

MATCHES PLAYED – 17, WON – 10, LOST – 7

CAPTAINS: Kumar Sangakkara led the side for the 9 matches and Cameron White took up the responsibility for the next 8 games.

SQUAD: Akshath Reddy, Amit Mishra, Anand Rajan, Ankit Sharma, Ashish Reddy, Biplab Samantray, Cameron White, Chris Lynn, Thisara Perera, Dale Steyn, Darren Sammy, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Hanuma Vihari, Ishant Sharma, Veer Pratap Singh, Karn Sharma, Kumar Sangakkara, Nathan McCullum, Parthiv Patel (wk), Quinton de Kock, Sachin Rana, Shikhar Dhawan, Sudeep Tyagi, Thalaivan Sargunam

TOP PERFORMER (Amit Mishra)

Hard to pinpoint one player, but Amit Mishra was the pick, who managed to scalp 21 wickets in the season, which also included a hat-trick against the Pune Warriors India. He collaborated brilliantly with Karn Sharma, who formed an incredible wrist-spinning duo.

2. 2014 – 6th Position

The Sunrisers management under the leadership of K Srikkanth, VVS Laxman and Tom Moody made a lot of changes in the squad. It took a lot of time for them to find the right permutations and combinations and eventually, they failed to stamp their authority. Shikhar Dhawan led an IPL side for the first time in his career and he failed to inspire the Sunrisers to do anything brilliant. They finished 6th in the League stages and failed to qualify for the Playoffs.

TOTAL MATCHES PLAYED – 14, WON – 6, LOST – 8

CAPTAINS: Shikhar Dhawan captained the side for the first 10 games whilst Darren Sammy led the side for the remaining 4 matches.

SQUAD: Dale Steyn, Shikhar Dhawan, David Warner, Darren Sammy, Amit Mishra, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Brendan Taylor, Moisés Henriques, Venugopal Rao, Jason Holder, Aaron Finch, Srikkanth Anirudha, Manpreet Juneja, K. L. Rahul, Parvez Rasool, Prasanth Parameswaran, Karn Sharma, Amit Paunikar, Naman Ojha, Ricky Bhui, Ashish Reddy, Chama Milind

TOP PERFORMER (David Warner)

It was a below-par season for the Sunrisers, but David Warner managed to accumulate a decent amount of runs with the bat. He had to bat at number 3 on occasions as Aaron Finch and Shikhar Dhawan opened the innings on occasions, but he managed to register 528 runs in 14 matches at an outstanding average of 48.

3. 2015 – 6th Position

A season which promised a lot faltered in the final game where they were beaten harshly by the eventual champions Mumbai Indians. In the last League game, both Mumbai and Hyderabad needed a win to finish second on the points table and the former managed to win the game by a big margin. The Sunrisers were outstanding in the whole season and their performances started to attract better crowds at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad.

TOTAL MATCHES PLAYED – 14, WON – 7, LOST – 7

CAPTAIN: David Warner was appointed as the captain and the legendary Muttiah Muralitharan also joined the Management as the bowling coach.

SQUAD: David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan, Ashish Reddy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Chama Milind, Dale Steyn, Ishant Sharma, Karn Sharma, K. L. Rahul, Moises Henriques, Naman Ojha, Parvez Rasool, Ricky Bhui, Trent Boult, Praveen Kumar, Kevin Pietersen (but later pulled out of IPL), Eoin Morgan, Ravi Bopara, Kane Williamson, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Padmanabhan Prasanth, Hanuma Vihari, Siddarth Kaul

Top Performer (David Warner)

In his first ever stint as the captain of a major side, David Warner passed the test with flying colors. He formed an incredible opening pair with Shikhar Dhawan and accumulated a staggering 562 runs in 14 matches. He was awarded the Orange Cap for being the leading run-scorer in the season.

4. 2016 – Champions

The Sunrisers Hyderabad managed to lift the trophy for the first time in their history and this had a significant impact on their stardom. They started accumulating record attendances at Hyderabad and attained a fan base all across the country. They became the first time since the introduction of the Playoffs system to win the league despite finishing third in the league table. They had to win three knockout games towards the end to win the title.

Total Matches Played – 17, Won -11, Lost – 6

CAPTAIN: David Warner

SQUAD: David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan, Ashish Reddy, Naman Ojha, Eoin Morgan, Karn Sharma, Moises Henriques, Kane Williamson, Trent Boult, Ricky Bhui, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul, Bipul Sharma,  Yuvraj Singh, Ashish Nehra, Ben Cutting, Tirumalasetti Suman, Deepak Hooda, Mustafizur Rahman , Aditya Tare, Barinder Sran, Vijay Shankar, Abhimanyu Mithun

Top Performers (David Warner and Bhuvneshwar Kumar)

Both these players pulled off two of the greatest individual performances in IPL history. Bhuvneshwar won the purple cap by scalping 23 wickets, whilst David Warner amassed a humongous 848 runs. Warner recorded 9 half-centuries in the process, which happens to be the most for any player in a single season.

5. 2017 – 4th Position

With the “Defending champions” tag after their name, the Sunrisers managed to live up to the expectations of the fans. They were brilliant in the League stages and looked well set to finish second in the points table, but some results didn’t go in their favor and they had to settle for the third position. Nevertheless, they provided some memorable action and entertained the fans very well. They lost the eliminator contest to the Kolkata Knight Riders and finished fourth.

Total Matches Played – 15, Won – 8, Lost – 6, NR – 1

CAPTAIN: David Warner

SQUAD: David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan, Moises Henriques, Ben Cutting, Deepak Hooda, Yuvraj Singh, Kane Williamson, Vijay Shankar, Naman Ojha, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Barinder Sran, Ashish Nehra, Abhimanyu Mithun, Siddarth Kaul, Bipul Sharma, Mustafizur Rahman, Ricky Bhui, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Chris Jordan, Tanmay Agarwal, Ben Laughlin, Mohammed Siraj, Eklavya Dwivedi & Pravin Tambe

Top Performers (David Warner and Bhuvneshwar Kumar)

Once again, it was David Warner and Bhuvneshwar Kumar who led from the front and helped their side finish fourth. Both players received the Orange Cap and Purple Cap respectively and this was only the second occasion when players from the same team won both these coveted caps. Bhuvneshwar recorded a career-best 26 wickets in the season whilst Warner registered 641 runs, which included four fifties and one century.

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