Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) suffered a six-wicket thrashing at the hands of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the IPL 2026 opener at Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday (March 28).

Asked to bat first, SRH were reduced to 29/3, with RCB debutant Jacob Duffy removing Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head and Nitish Kumar Reddy inside the powerplay.

Interim skipper Ishan Kishan led from the front with a blistering 80 off 38 balls before being caught to a one-handed stunner by Phil Salt. Aniket Verma provided late impetus with 18-ball 43 to propel SRH to 201/9 in 20 overs.

However, RCB made light work of the stiff target, chasing it down in just 15.4 overs. Virat Kohli expertly anchored the chase, finishing unbeaten on 69 off 38 while Devdutt Padikkal (61 off 26) and skipper Rajat Patidar (31 off 12) made significant contributions.

After the game, former India cricketer Kris Srikkanth scathingly criticized SRH’s bowling attack as "seriously terrible" and "fake".

Srikkanth ridiculed the reliance on Harshal Patel and Jaydev Unadkat as main bowlers, while also questioning the logic of opening the bowling with Nitish Kumar Reddy.

“If you play with Harshal Patel and Unadkat as your main bowlers, only god can save them. How long can they continue to manage with this fake bowling? Eventually, you need some good bowlers. It’s not just a judgment based on one match. And yet they keep hyping about scoring 300 with the bat. Their bowling can’t go on with these kinds of bowlers. They’ll need 400 with this bowling,” said Srikkanth on his YouTube channel.

Harshal and Sri Lankan pacer Eshan Malinga were slammed for being the most expensive bowlers in the SRH line-up. They combined to concede 74 runs in 4.4 overs without taking a wicket.

“SRH bowling is seriously terrible. They are opening with Nitish Kumar Reddy. I can’t even understand the logic behind that. Payne just took a fluke two wickets. Malinga got smashed. How long can they do with this kind of bowling lineup? Even if Cummins comes back, this bowling looks too weak. The speeds of these bowlers are also so low. Playing guys like Payne, they have no scope,” added Srikkanth.

The former BCCI chief selector was effusive in praise of Padikkal, describing his quickfire half-century as "extraordinary knock" that set up the chase for RCB.

“It was an extraordinary knock. This proves again that if you do well in domestic cricket and return to the basics, you’ll do well at higher levels. By going back to the basics, you correct yourself and come back. He played effortless shots. He finished off the SRH bowling,” Srikkanth remarked.