IPL 2021: 3 Changes Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) should make to get back to winning ways

It’s no secret that Sunrisers Hyderabad are one of the most consistent teams of the IPL. In fact, in the last five years, they are the only team to have qualified into the playoffs each season. Since they have started as a franchise in IPL, it’s been just two occasions where they couldn’t go past the league stage.

This season however, the case has been very contrasting. Sunrisers Hyderabad have lost all of their first three encounters and are sitting at the bottom of the table. They had a chance to win each game but fell short by barest of margins; 10, 6 and 13 runs respectively. 

While they have a couple of match winners who never disappoint, the middle-order of the orange army is really fragile. It has never been their strong point but it looks the weakest this particular season. They badly require changes which they tried against Mumbai Indians as well but most of them were uncalled for. 

3 Changes SRH should make to get back to winning ways:

1. Kane Williamson for Mujeeb Ur Rahman 

There’s no reason why someone as good as Kane Williamson should sit in the dugout for someone else in the team. In order to strengthen their bowling, SRH is compromising on a stable middle order which needs gas as soon as possible. The New Zealand captain can bat somewhere in the middle order to change the fat for the team.

They have tried Jonny Bairstow in the middle order but it led to a weaker opening option along with David Warner. Manish Pandey is just not able to strike it as well as he should in spite of batting through the innings. He requires a boost up in his confidence and a senior pro like Kane Williamson can do it efficiently. 

It would be better to bat Kane at #4 just like they did in the last half of the 2020 edition of the IPL which changed their fortunes. Kane is at the peak of his career scoring runs across the formats. He has always been magnificent in the IPL for SRH and he can easily take them out of pressure situations. 

2. Kedar Jadhav in for Virat Singh 

While it’s good to have the belief in a youngster, the lower middle order of SRH badly requires experience. With the like of Abdul Samad, Vijay Shankar and Abhishek Sharma there, it is a bad move to play another youngster in the middle order with no IPL experience before. Virat Singh struggled for runs in the match against MI with a run-a-ball innings which went nowhere.

Kedar Jadhav had an abysmal run in the last edition of IPL which ultimately led to his departure from CSK. But he was looking in fine touch in the SMAT tournament held earlier this year. His experience is what Sunrisers Hyderabad need badly right now. 

Kedar Jadhav has the ability to strike since the ball one. He can also anchor the innings in case the top order finds a collapse. He’s good against pace as well as spin and things will be more stable in the middle order for SRH if they can select him in the playing XI. 

3. T Natarajan for Khaleel Ahmed 

It came as a surprise when Natarajan was replaced by Khaleel Ahmed in the last game. The former particularly didn’t have a bad performance that resulted in him getting dropped. He picked up one wicket each in the first two games and his economy stood between 8 to 9 per over which is pretty decent by any means.

Khaleel Ahmed himself had a good outing as he took one wicket for 24 runs against Mumbai Indians. However, SRH required to do just a tad bit better in the last few overs. Pollard played a great innings which made a difference of at least 10-15 runs which cost SRH the game. 

Natarajan is the best death bowler for SRH since last season while Bhuvneshwar is still trying to find his best rhythm. Including Natarajan in would be a great move as he can use yorkers efficiently in the death overs. He’s currently having more confidence in his game when you compare him to Khaleel and SRH needs to cash in on his form by backing him throughout the season!