Last Updated on 1 year by Charbel Coorey
Opinion: 3 reasons why SRH had a shocking IPL 2023 campaign | A look at why SRH failed in the 2023 Indian Premier League
With the loss against Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers Hyderabad registered their 10th loss of the season, marking the end of what was a horrible season for the Orange Army. SRH managed to win just four games out of 14, and finished at the bottom of the points table with only eight points in IPL 2023.
The squad SRH assembled at the auction looked more than just decent, with belief from all corners that they could actually win the prestigious league. However, they never got going.
Why did SRH fail in IPL 2023? 3 reasons
On that note, let us have a look at three potential reasons behind SRH’s poor season.
1. Umran Malik, anyone?
In IPL 2022, Umran Malik was the pick of the bowlers for SRH. In what was his breakthrough season, he managed to take 22 wickets at a staggering strike rate of 13.40. Soon after that, he received his India callup.
As a result, much was expected from Umran heading into 2023. One of the primary objectives of the IPL is, and has always been, to nurture the young Indian talents and give them the experience and backing they need to be able to perform at the highest level.
Unfortunately, that is not what happened in this case. In fact, Aiden Markram and SRH’s treatment and usage of Umran was rather strange.
On fairly tiny grounds where even top express pace bowlers like Lockie Ferguson, Kagiso Rabada, Jofra Archer and Anrich Nortje proved to be pretty expensive, Umran went for plenty too. Naturally, he was also a bit more expensive due to his lack of experience. However, he hasn’t been backed by the captain or by the management. The fact that the youngster bowled out just once this season may come across as a shock to many.
Umran’s worst over of the season came against the Kolkata Knight Riders, where Nitish Rana managed to score 28 runs off it. Although Umran did bowl some ordinary deliveries, he was able to find the edge of Rana’s bat twice in the over. He could potentially have had Rana’s wicket twice that day, but this is where the difference between Kane Williamson and Aiden Markram’s captaincy was quite evident. The way Williamson talked to him after a bad ball, backed him, and most importantly set the field for him last season was praiseworthy.
This is what statistics won’t tell.
In the first four games this season, Umran picked up five wickets. He was dropped after the game against KKR, and when he returned, he finished with figures of 0-18 (3) and 0-14 (2) in his next two games against Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals respectively. Not bowling his quota of four overs even in games where he bowled economically is further proof that Markram and SRH have not done much to help Umran’s confidence either.
He was dropped once more after he bowled an expensive 22-run over against DC in the reverse fixture, and when he made a comeback against Mumbai Indians in SRH’s last game of the season, he again went for 41 runs in his three overs. Umran did trouble Cameron Green in his first two overs, but went for 20 in his last. He is definitely inconsistent and has to work on his lines and lengths, but he has the potential to be a top bowler in the future.
Umran is a genuine wicket taker. He has gone wicketless just twice in the 16 games he has played for India. The Sunrisers Hyderabad would feel they missed a trick by not backing Umran Malik throughout the tournament. Even if he went for runs, he could have guaranteed some wickets in the middle overs.
2. No one delivered with the bat consistently, apart from Heinrich Klaasen
SRH was let down by their batsmen on countless occasions. Their highest run-getter this time around was the superb Heinrich Klaasen, who batted at number 5 and 6 almost throughout the tournament. Apart from Klaasen, everyone failed to perform consistently.
In the end, the South African scored 448 runs at a scintillating average of close to 50, while striking at 177.
In a season where eight out of the ten teams had at least 12 individual half centuries, SRH had just eight, with two coming in their last game against Mumbai Indians.
Among batters who played a minimum of five innings for SRH, only Abdul Samad and Heinrich Klaasen averaged more than 30. Also, none of Rahul Tripathi, Mayank Agarwal, Abhishek Sharma and Harry Brook could cross the 300-run mark.
Tripathi scored 273 runs this season at an average of 22.75, striking at just 128. Mayank looked very impressive in the last game of the season against Mumbai Indians, scoring 83 off just 46 deliveries. However, he did not score a single fifty in the nine games he played prior to that.
Brook was bought by SRH at the auction for a massive amount of 13.25 crore. Apart from that one ton against Kolkata Knight Riders, he was hugely disappointing. He ended the season with three ducks, and only once did he get to cross 50. The strategy from SRH to spend a whopping amount of money on a batter who had no experience batting in India greatly backfired.
3. Aiden Markram’s inability to lead from the front
While captains like Faf du Plessis, Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner led the run-scoring charts for their teams, Aiden Markram failed to perform the way a leader would want to. Markram scored just 248 runs in the entire season, averaging less than 23 with a strike rate of just 126.
In 13 games, Markram was dismissed for a single digit score four times, and failed to score more than 20 runs eight times. He managed to strike at more than 130 in just four games.
In a team where most batters were struggling for form, the skipper could not do much to inspire them. What David Warner did for Delhi Capitals this season with practically no help from the other batters is a perfect example of what was expected from Markram.
The team selection, at times, was a bit perplexing as well. Playing two overseas pacers in Fazalhaq Farooqi and Marco Jansen did not allow SRH to play both Heinrich Klaasen and Glenn Phillips together in the middle order for a long part of the season. Also, one would feel that there was way too much rotation in terms of the opening pair and the batting positions of players.
Nevertheless, it was only Markram’s first season captaining an IPL side. Even though he failed to impress this time, SRH would hope he and the team come out stronger next year.
