The IPL 2016 winners Sunrisers Hyderabad will be looking forward to performing well in the upcoming IPL 2018 season. They also finished in the playoffs in the last season of IPL in 2017.
Sunrisers had retained just captain David Warner and Bhuvneshwar Kumar during the pre-auction retention before the IPL 2018. Sunrisers then used their first RTM card to buy back Shikhar Dhawan in the IPL 2018 auctions in January this year. They then got Kane Williamson and Shakib-Al-Hasan from the marquee list of players.
Wriddhiman Saha was bought as the first choice keeper, along with Yusuf Pathan. Their biggest buy in the IPL 2018 auction was Manish Pandey, who they got for Rs. 11 cr. Rashid Khan cost them Rs 9 cr and then they added Sandeep Sharma to their lineup. Billy Stanlake and Chris Jordan were some of the overseas buys for SRH, who bought a total of 25 players in the auction.
Today, we look at the 5 players on whom SRH will bank upon for a redo of the IPL 2016 season and win the title again.
Here are the five chosen players:
RASHID KHAN
No one will believe that Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan is just 19 years old. The leg-spinner has made a big impression in last two years he has played international cricket. He gained popularity for picking up a seven-wicket haul in an ODI against West Indies.
Rashid made his IPL debut in IPL 2017 for SRH, becoming the most expensive Afghani player to be sold in the auction at Rs 4 cr. Rashid repaid that money with 17 wickets in the tournament and helped his team reach the playoffs. He was bought by the SRH in the IPL 2018 auctions for Rs 9 cr, after a scintillating performance in his first BBL appearance.
SRH will hope that Rashid continues his wicket-taking streak in the upcoming IPL as well.
SHIKHAR DHAWAN
Shikhar Dhawan was the first player on whom SRH team management used their RTM card in the IPL 2018 auctions. He was brought back in the SRH team for Rs 5.20 cr.
Dhawan has played 127 IPL matches with 3561 runs and 28 fifties to his name. His highest score is 95* and has a strike rate of 121.86 and has hit 401 fours and 71 sixes in IPL so far. He hit 479 runs in 14 IPL matches in the 2017 season.
Dhawan is an aggressive opener who takes the pressure off David Warner, who is the pillar of SRH batting, enabling him to bat throughout the innings. Dhawan will be one of the vital players for SRH to continue their hunt for their second IPL title in 2018 season.
MANISH PANDEY
Manish Pandey was one of the best batsmen for KKR team for a long time, but Sunrisers Hyderabad outbid KKR in the IPL 2018 auction and bought Manish Pandey for a whopping Rs 11cr. He was the second most expensive Indian player sold in the 2018 IPL auction.
Pandey has played 103 matches in IPL and scored 2215 runs with a strike rate of 120.11 and was the first Indian to score a century in the IPL, way back in IPL 2009. Pandey was also the Man of the final in KKR’s 2014 IPL title win over KXIP for his innings of 94.
Pandey has slowly, but surely established himself as the no.5 batsman in the Indian batting lineup and was a brilliant middle-order batsman for KKR till IPL 2017. He scored 396 runs in 14 matches for KKR in IPL 2017 and took KKR to the playoffs.
SRH will bank on him to provide big-time support to its openers and act as a bridge between the top three and the finishers. Pandey will also get to play one of the senior player's roles in the SRH setup.
BHUVNESHWAR KUMAR
Bhuvneshwar Kumar was retained by the SRH for the IPL 2018 season. Kumar was brilliant for SRH in IPL 2017 with 26 wickets to his name. Bhuvneshwar Kumar became the first bowler to win the Purple Cap award twice in a row, as he had won the same laurels in IPL 2016 as well for taking 23 wickets in the season.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar also picked up his first five-wicket haul in the T20 format in IPL 2017. SRH has always banked on Kumar to provide them with wickets both at the top of the innings and then bowl economically well in the death overs.
Kumar has established himself as the best death overs bowler in IPL and SRH will expect nothing less than an exemplary performance from their strike bowler.
DAVID WARNER
David Warner has been in top form for SRH since becoming their captain. He even led SRH to the IPL title win in IPL 2016. Since becoming a part of SRH in IPL 2014, Warner has racked up numbers like 528 runs in IPL 2014, 562 runs in IPL 2015, 848 runs in IPL 2016 and 641 runs in IPL 2017.
Warner has a total of 4014 runs in 114 IPL matches with 3 centuries and the best score of 126 and a strike rate of 142.13. He has hit 160 sixes and 401 fours in the tournament.
David Warner will be responsible for leading SRH to the title once again and do it while leading from the front with the bat. He is explosive at the top and usually desires to bat through the innings, having surrounded himself with hitters in the batting lineup.
He is also a brilliant fielder anywhere in the field and his captaincy is astute and creative when the requirement arises.
SRH will definitely like to have all these five players to fire continuously throughout the IPL 2018 season and win the title once again.
