After a 34-run loss to the reigning champions Gujarat Titans (GT) in Ahmedabad on May 15, the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) joined the Delhi Capitals (DC) in being officially eliminated from the IPL 2023 playoffs competition.
With only eight points in 12 matches, SRH has had another bad season, which makes it the third season in a row that they failed to qualify for the playoffs.
They ended eighth in the points standings last season with six victories from 14 games and have been even poorer this season, sitting in ninth place with eight points from 12 games.
In preparation for this season, the franchise released captain Kane Williamson, Nicholas Pooran, Romario Shepard, Sean Abbott, Rashid Khan, and Shreyas Gopal.
Aiden Markram, Glenn Phillips, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Rahul Tripathi, Washington Sundar, Umran Malik, T Natarajan, and Karthik Tyagi were also retained, as was Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, who led the squad in lieu of Williamson.
Other potentially game-changing decisions were the purchase of English batter Harry Brook for 13.25 crores and the addition of crucial players like Mayank Agarwal, Heinrich Klassen, Adil Rashid, Mayank Markande, and Akiel Hossain.
SRH demonstrated trust in its support team by retaining Brian Lara, Dale Steyn, and Hemang Badani. They removed Tom Moody as head coach and named Lara as his replacement.
Aiden Markram was named captain of the franchise after his outstanding batting performance last season and his success guiding the SunRisers Eastern Cape to the SA20 league title.
Many fans and analysts predicted that SRH would be one of the favourites to qualify for the playoffs prior to the competition, but they have been perhaps the biggest letdown of this IPL season.
Consider three parallels between SRH’s failures in IPL 2023 and 2022.
1) SRH skipper’s poor batting form in 2022 and 2023
Kane Williamson and Aide Markram, the SunRisers Hyderabad captains in 2022 and 2023, have been among the biggest letdowns with the bat, contributing to the side’s mediocre batting performances.
Despite being one of the finest batters in the world, Williamson struggled with the bat the last season, collecting 216 runs in 13 games at an average of 19.64 and a strike rate of 93.51.
Williamson had been a pillar of SRH over the past eight years, particularly since 2017. He also won the Orange Cap in 2018, scoring 735 runs and leading the squad to the championship game.
Due to his stellar performance last season, when he scored 381 runs at an average of 47.63 and a strike rate of 139, the franchise broke ways with the New Zealand limited-overs captain and picked Markram to head the squad.
Despite his strong start for the Proteas, Markram has struggled this season, amassing 217 runs in 11 games at an average of 21.70 and a strike rate of 127.65.
Over the last two seasons, the franchise captains’ bad performance has reflected the team’s overall performance with the bat and win-loss record.
2) In 2022 and 2023, poor batting performances as individuals and as a team.
The SRH team’s lack of major run scorers has been an obvious issue over the last two seasons, resulting in dismal overall batting averages.
The team was in the bottom half of the standings in both runs per wicket and scoring rate, finishing sixth in both categories with an average of 26.37 and a scoring rate of 7.96 runs per over.
This season, they’ve grown even worse in all areas, averaging 23.75 runs per wicket and 7.95 runs per over, placing eighth and ninth, respectively.
The omission of SRH bats from the leading run-scoring table has been a major contributor to the aforementioned numbers. Abhishek Sharma was SRH’s highest-ranked hitter on the Orange cap list last season, coming in 13th with 426 runs.
This season, the highest-ranking SRH batter in terms of runs scored is Heinrich Klaasen, who is placed 20th.
This reflects SRH’s batting troubles, which have led to poor performances over the last two seasons.
3) Spinners failed to take wickets in 2022 and 2023
Spinners play a significant part in the IPL team’s success, as proven by that four of the top five wicket-takers in IPL history are spinners.
Given that pitches in India gradually become slower and lower as the season progresses, spinners’ importance grows significantly.
However, SRH has been one of the poorest sides in spin bowling wickets, finishing last year at the bottom and second to last this season with only 15 and 22 scalps, respectively.
the reason for the lack of spinner’s wickets is the form of off-spinner Washington Sundar, who took only six wickets in nine matches last season and three wickets in seven matches this season before being ruled out due to injury.
Despite the arrival of Mayank Markhande, who has 12 wickets in 10 games this season, SRH has lacked Indian spin bowling alternatives.
