3 similarities in SRH's failures in IPL 2023 and 2022
The SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) joined the Delhi Capitals (DC) in being officially eliminated from the IPL 2023 playoffs race after their 34-run defeat to the defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT) in Ahmedabad on May 15.
With just eight points in 12 matches, SRH have endured another disappointing season, making it three consecutive seasons of not qualifying for the IPL playoffs.
They finished eighth in the points table last season with only six wins from 14 games and have been even worse thus far this season, languishing at the ninth spot with eight points from 12 games.
The franchise made several wholesome changes to its squad ahead of this season by releasing skipper Kane Williamson, Nicholas Pooran, Romario Shepard, Sean Abbott, Rashid Khan, and Shreyas Gopal.
Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, who captained the team in place of Williamson, was retained along with Aiden Markram, Glenn Phillips, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Rahul Tripathi, Washington Sundar, Umran Malik, T Natarajan, and Karthik Tyagi.
The franchise made other potentially game-changing moves, purchasing English batter Harry Brook for ₹13.25 crores and adding key players like Mayank Agarwal, Heinrich Klassen, Adil Rashid, Mayank Markande, and Akiel Hossain.
SRH displayed faith in its support staff by retaining the likes of Brian Lara, Dale Steyn, and Hemang Badani. They released Tom Moody as their head coach and appointed Lara to take over the reins.
The franchise appointed Aiden Markram as captain thanks to his excellent performance with the bat last season and his success leading the SunRisers Eastern Cape to the title in the recently concluded SA20 league.
Picked as one of the favorites to qualify for the playoffs pre-tournament by many fans and experts, SRH has been arguably the biggest disappointment of this IPL season.
Let us look at three similarities in SRH's failures in IPL 2023 and 2022.
#1 Poor batting form of SRH's captains in 2022 and 2023
The skippers of the SunRisers Hyderabad in 2022 and 2023, Kane Williamson and Aiden Markram, have been among the biggest letdowns with the bat, leading to the side's tepid batting displays.
Despite being one of the world's best batters, Williamson had a torrid time with the bat last season, scoring a dismal 216 runs in 13 games at an average of 19.64 and a strike rate of 93.51.
Williamson had been among SRH's lynchpins for eight years, especially since 2017. He also won the Orange Cap in 2018, scoring 735 runs and helping lead the team to the final.
The franchise parted ways with the New Zealand limited-overs skipper and appointed Markram to lead the team, owing to his scintillating form last season, where he scored 381 runs at an average of 47.63 and a strike rate of 139.
However, despite coming in with impressive form for the Proteas, Markram has struggled throughout the season, scoring just 217 runs in 11 games at an average of 21.70 and a strike rate of 127.65.
The poor form of the franchise captains over the last two seasons has mirrored the team's overall performance with the bat and in their win-loss record.
#2 Poor batting performances as individuals and collectively as a team in 2022 and 2023
A glaring weakness in the SRH team over the last two seasons has been their lack of big run-getters, leading to the side boasting poor overall batting numbers.
The team was in the bottom half of the table in both runs per wicket with an average of 26.37 and a scoring rate of 7.96 runs per over, ranking them sixth in both categories.
This season, they have gotten even worse in both categories, averaging 23.75 runs per wicket with a scoring rate of 7.95 runs per over, ranking them eighth and ninth, respectively.
A key reason for the above stats has been the absence of SRH batters in the leading run scorers' chart. Last season, SRH's highest-ranked batter in the Orange cap list was Abhishek Sharma at 13th with 426 runs.
Things have only gotten worse this season, as the highest-ranked SRH batter in terms of runs scored is Heinrich Klaasen at 20th place.
This indicates the batting woes for SRH, leading them to dismal performances throughout the last two seasons.
#3 Lack of wickets from spinners in 2022 and 2023
Spinners have often played a substantial role in the success of IPL teams, evidenced by the fact that four of the top five wicket-takers in IPL history are spinners.
Considering the pitches in India eventually get slower and lower as the season wears on, the role of spinners becomes exponentially greater.
However, SRH has been among the worst teams in spin bowling wickets, ranking at the bottom a year ago and second to bottom this season with just 15 and 22 scalps.
One of the reasons for their lack of wickets from spinners has been the form of off-spinner Washington Sundar, who picked up only six wickets in nine matches last season and three wickets in seven games this season before injury ruled him out of the remainder of the tournament.
SRH has also lacked Indian spin bowling options despite the addition of Mayank Markhande, who has picked up 12 wickets in 10 games this season.