IPL 2020: Sunrisers Hyderabad's Team of the Decade
The Indian Premier League's auction for the next season is just a few days away and the final shortlist of names has already been revealed. While there is enough time for the auction, it would be interesting to look at Sunrisers Hyderabad's best XI of this decade.
This would be the apt time for that as not only is the decade coming to an end but Sunrisers Hyderabad are one of the youngest teams in the IPL. Ever since SRH replaced the bankrupt Deccan Chargers for the 2014 season, the southern side has always punched above its weight.
Hyderabad have particularly consistent in the last four years with the team even going on to lift the title in 2016. They also came very close in 2018 but had end to second-best to a rampant Chennai Super Kings outfit.
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Given how successful they have been in these seven years, it is obvious that a number of players would have played an integral part in the team's success. So, let us look at such players and form the best SRH side for this decade.
Note: We will go in with the usual IPL rules of having 7 Indians and 4 overseas players.
Openers
#1 David Warner
Probably Sunrisers Hyderabad's best-ever player, the short and gritty Aussie opener David Warner will definitely be one of the first name's on the team-sheet. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that David Warner has had his best IPL years with Sunrisers Hyderabad. After all, Warner has notched up a humongous 3271 runs in just 71 matches.
The filtered stats become even more amazing as the southpaw has scored 34 fifties and two hundreds out of those 71 matches. Incredibly, Warner has also scored more than 600 runs for the past three seasons in which he has participated. Be it Shikhar Dhawan until IPL 2018 or Jonny Bairstow earlier this year, Warner has also found a lot of success with his opening partners and this is reflected in the fact that the Aussie has been involved in 17 100-run partnerships for SRH.
#2 Shikhar Dhawan
Partnering Warner at the top will be the successful Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan. Just like Warner, it could also be said that Shikhar Dhawan produced his best IPL years while being associated with Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Although, Dhawan moved to Delhi Capitals ahead of the 2019 season, his contribution to SRH can't be overlooked. In fact, Dhawan is the second highest run-scorer in SRH's 7-year history with 2768 runs from 91 matches. While he was there with SRH, Dhawan complemented the aggressive Warner very well by executing the role of sheet anchor to perfection. Without any sort of doubt, this combination of Warner and Dhawan could be termed a huge success.