Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) are enduring a dismal Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 campaign. Having lost five out of their seven games, the Aiden Markram-led side is currently occupying the ninth spot on the points table featuring 10 teams.
Ahead of SRH’s next fixture against Delhi Capitals (DC) on April 29, skipper Markram acknowledged that constant chopping and changing has hurt his side despite having one of the most balanced squads.
“It’s been a difficult one. Because we’ve had a solid pool of player. Constant chopping and changes has also hurt us. Hopefully, in the last seven games, we will find the right balance in terms of the players and the combinations will turn around our season, starting from Saturday,” said Markram on the eve of SRH’s clash against DC.
“We’re trying to free guys up and get them to express themselves as best as they can. So I felt we were slightly conservative with our approach,” he added.
SRH have also suffered a massive blow as all-rounder Washington Sundar has been ruled out of the tournament due to a hamstring injury.
Sundar played seven matches in the ongoing IPL season. He claimed three wickets and conceded 146 runs at an economy of 8.26 while he scored 60 runs with the highest score of 24.
Aiden Markram said he has no idea about Washington Sundar’s replacement.
“In terms of replacement, I’ve not been involved in any of those, so I’m not too sure what’s happening regarding that. But it’s a massive loss, we all know the quality of Washi and the experience he brings. It’s not very easy to just replace a player like him but you still have to be confident in the players that we have in our squad and give them a fair chance,” he said.
Sunrisers are currently languishing at the bottom and Markram said they need to treat the remaining games as a knockout.
“Every match from now onwards is an eliminator for us. We’re in this position because we haven’t played best cricket as a team and going forward, we need to improve massively in all the three departments and play a good brand of cricket,” he said.
(The Indian Express Inputs)
