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Cricket News: Why has SRH had such a poor season in IPL 2021? | A look at why Sunrisers Hyderabad have been so poor in IPL 2021
The Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) have had a torrid campaign in the Indian Premier League (IPL) this year. Having been one of the finest competitors in the league over the years, SRH are expected to live up to their high standards at all times.
However, at the time of writing this article, they have won only two out of their 12 games and sit at the bottom of the standings.
They have gone through very tumultuous times in this edition particularly, having dropped former skipper David Warner from the lineup yet failing to strike the right balance needed to cross over the finishing line time and again.
However, it is certainly arguable that SRH’s disappointing run this year is an accumulation of all of their errors in the last few years. In fact, it can be said that they have been somewhat fortunate to have qualified to the playoffs in the preceding two campaigns with only 12 and 14 points in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
Why SRH were consistent in previous years
They set very high standards in 2018, finishing the atop the points table with 18 points but a close observer could very well point out that the impact that they were having that year was diminishing gradually these three seasons.
And their failure this year could be attributed to the fact that they didn’t embark on course-correction despite there being ample evidences of the necessity to do so.
Their success in 2018 was built on the success of a very fine bowling attack. The bowling unit wasn’t menacing as such. However, it was mighty effective for the major part of that campaign.
The likes of Siddarth Kaul and Sandeep Sharma had emerged as dark horses who efficiently employed their skills to extract great returns for a limited period of time.
However, it isn’t difficult to decipher that their overall skillsets were conveniently unfolded by their adversaries gradually. Hence, if one remembers correctly, even that year the SRH bowling attack performed optimally only until the fag end of the campaign. They were in fact clobbered by CSK in the finale who chased down 179 runs by losing merely two wickets with relative ease.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rashid Khan were the other two pillars of the bowling lineup. However, Bhuvi has sort of blown hot and cold in recent times and there is only so much that Rashid can do all alone.
Why SRH have struggled badly in IPL 2021
However, SRH didn’t choose to modify their attack with the changing times. Instead, they have stuck to the 2018 formula until recently, with limited success that has been invigorated through the sustained brilliance of their Afghan wizard.
On the other hand, the success of any IPL team is actually largely driven by the success of one Indian batsman. That Indian player is supposed to be the fulcrum holding the entire batting order together, and has to be supplemented by certain other overseas performers.
But for a key Indian batter to hold the lineup together is of an utmost necessity.
Contrastingly, SRH have instead relied on their international batsmen to do most of the work. Yes, the likes of David Warner, Johnny Bairstow and Kane Williamson form an unbelievable trio that any team would be envious of.
However, playing all of them together hampers the balance of the team, leaving the middle-order very feeble. Moreover, it also takes a lot of sheen away from the bowling unit as well, making the team very top-heavy.
It is not entirely SRH’s fault though. They picked up Manish Pandey for big bucks in the mega auction and have depended on him to deliver the goods. Pandey hasn’t really lived up to the expectations though and neither did SRH pick up any reasonable alternatives to fulfill this criterion in the following auctions.
Instead, in recent months, they have looked up to the likes of Abhishek Sharma and Abdul Samad to do that role, both of them vastly inexperienced to carry out such a responsibility in a consistent manner.
The less talked about David Warner’s exclusion, the better it would be too. The Aussie didn’t perform up to his levels but seeing a guy who played so hard for the badge out of the XI seems quite odd too.
However, that storm could have been weathered with a better core group of domestic batsmen.
It’s more or less time for SRH to hit the reboot button completely. Foreign players are anyways prized assets and they can buy back/retain some of the existing ones or buy others in the mega auction. But it is the Indian core that they need to improve upon exponentially.
They will have to buy more assets who can give fixed returns over a long period of time than try and hit the homerun with fringe players. The thing with underdogs is that their gross value tends to recede gradually whereas other fundamentally strong players can collectively take up the team’s level next year.
Moreover, they need to learn to be more flexible in both their approach and ideas, something for which the backroom staff would have to be responsible for. They have been one of the more consistent units in the history of the IPL and are undergoing an off season like most teams do.
But, they will have to learn from the errors, correct them and then stand a chance to come back stronger.
Written by Tarkesh Jha. Follow Tarkesh on Twitter
