SRH must make a few necessary personnel and playing style alterations to bring results in their favour.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) started the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 with a bang. They registered a whopping 286/6 against the Rajasthan Royals (RR). There were chatters about how SRH will break all batting records again and keep firing the same way throughout the season. However, that hasn’t happened, and SRH have not scored as briskly in their last two fixtures.
While they have gone hard from the start, as they always do, the Orange Army has lost too many wickets and registered below-par scores in both matches. The problem is that there is no middle ground in their batting approach. SRH just whack everything, irrespective of lines, lengths, and movement.
Consequently, they have lost the previous two matches against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Delhi Capitals (DC) after a win in the opening clash. SRH must make a few necessary personnel and playing style alterations to bring results in their favour. This is still an early phase in the tournament, and they must make a few tactical changes to stop shrinking further.
We look at three reasons SRH are losing and how they can return to winning ways.
Sunrisers Hyderabad have one of the most explosive top three in the competition – Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, and Ishan Kishan. They can all go hard from the first ball and always bat at a high strike rate. However, that also means they are vulnerable and often lose wickets while attacking. This has been happening in the previous two matches.
All three are LHBs and have certain issues against pace and spin bowling, and teams have exploited them well. They have adopted more defensive plans to stop this hard-hitting trio and have been successful in the process. With as many as three LHBs, the bowlers haven’t had to change their plans and bowled tight areas.
At this stage, SRH batters lack a different batting tempo, where they must respect good balls and play them out. Playing attacking cricket shouldn’t be limited to just blind slogging. They can instead play on the merit of the ball and still find success. They can also look to split three LHBs and put Ishan Kishan at No.4, even though he has already hit a century at No.3.
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Despite the impact player rule, Sunrisers Hyderabad lack enough depth and reliability in the batting order. They have Abhinav Manohar at No.7, who hasn’t been consistent despite all the talent. Below Manohar, SRH have Pat Cummins, who can play big shots but can’t be relied on to play those cameos consistently.
SRH tried Wiaan Mulder as an impact player in the last game, but his batting is not good enough for the IPL stage. He can’t play big shots consistently and often requires a few balls before starting to score. Unfortunately, SRH can’t promote him in this batting unit since other positions are sealed.
Their squad doesn’t have enough options, so SRH can’t do much to overcome this trouble either. They can only hope for a better application from middle-order batters and more consistency from Manohar. While Mulder increases the batting depth, he can’t perform the role of a finisher and weakens the bowling unit.
Sunrisers Hyderabad’s intention during the IPL 2025 auction was to form a solid bowling attack by bringing the best options in the Indian pace department. They also roped in quality speedsters like Mohammed Shami, Harshal Patel, and Simarjeet Singh. However, these pacers and Cummins have been expensive in all three games.
It’s not only about economic rates; their lines and lengths have been wayward. Harshal has done well in patches, but other pacers haven’t inspired enough confidence. SRH also dropped Simarjeet Singh against DC to bring in Mulder, who offers value in both departments.
SRH should bring Simarjeet back and use him as a middle-over enforcer. Shami and Cummins should employ more defensive lengths in the powerplay. Shami hasn’t bowled enough run-restriciting balls and often ends up bowling slot or length deliveries. They can also bring Jaydev Unadkat for Simarjeet, for he bowled well in the previous season, despite mostly bowling on flat surfaces.
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