The orange army has been a consistent performer since Warner took the charge of the team. Even in the year that he missed due to ban, the team performed quite well under Kane. However the team is very much dependent on performance of the top order. For them to win the games, their domestic Indian players will have to perform better. They lack a big name at finishers, position however this also opens door of opportunities for a few young Indian players. The home ground of Hyderabad is one of the strongholds of SRH as it allows their bowlers to dominate and defend even low totals. Sunrisers would hope to get similar wickets in UAE.

We have to wait and watch if the combination of Trevor Bayliss and David Warner would result in repetition of 2016 feat. With a mix of experienced campaigners as well as youngsters they might have a different story to tell this year. They have got the likes of young lads such as Abdul samad, Priyam Garg, Virat Singh and also have experience holders like Rashid Khan , David Warner, Kane Williamson.Let’s have a look at how their team is gonna look ahead of the IPL, this year:

 Players retained:  Kane Williamson, David Warner, Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Abhishek Sharma, Jonny Bairstow, Wriddhiman Saha, Shreevats Goswami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Siddharth Kaul, Shahbaz Nadeem, Billy Stanlake, Basil Thampi, T Natarajan.

Players traded :  No trades

Best playing XI

Team strength – The Top order.

With Warner, Bairstow, Williamson and Manish Pandey in the top 4, SRH have a dream top order to kickstart IPL this year. Warner has always performed better in subcontinent kind of wickets. His opening partnerships with Bairstow was a hit last year as their explosive start can set the platform for people to came later in the innings. Kane Williamson and Manish Pandey are ideal players to take the team through in middle overs.

Team Weakness – The Finisher’s role

Their lower batting order. SRH have got the likes of Virat Singh , Priyam Garg , Wriddhiman Saha who have very impressive batting records at the top order but can they clear the field and pierce gaps regularly after field restrictions and finish the game for their team in the slog overs.

Players’ analysis

David Warner – The left handed swashbuckling opener from Australia has been the go to man for SRH. He almost single handedly won the 2016 IPL for SRH. Post pandemic he will be geared to make sure that his bat does all the talking and not the TikTok videos.

Jonny Bairstow – Apart from opening the innings with Warner, we might also see him with the gloves behind the wicket in this season of IPL. In the last year , we saw many good partnerships between him and Warner (one such occasion was against RCB) and they shall be eager to do add to those partnerships this year.

Kane Willamson – He is no more the skipper of SRH this year as Warner has been reinstated at the position. But Kane is always a vital member of the team and has a lot of responsibility in the middle order. His main role would be to play long innings and keep one end intact.

Vijay Shankar – This 3D player has a lot to prove to the selectors in this IPL. He was left off from the team after the 2019 world cup and this should be the perfect time for him to show some potential and perform consistently.

Manish Pandey – An absolute beast with bat who is quite flexible in the batting order and plays with responsibility. He and Kane make the core of their middle order. He has been in great touch ahead of the pandemic and shall be looking forward to continue the same.

Abhishek Sharma – A very talented guy with a lot of potential. He has played a few good cameos for Delhi as well as SRH in the past and this year he will try to have a larger conversion rate for his team.

Wridhiman Saha – A very underrated T20 batsman. But it has to be admitted that he hasnever get that many opportunities despite a useful century for Kings XI in the 2014  finals. He also has a century of 20 balls in domestic cricket and people hardly knows about it.

Sreevats Goswami- In the team probably as a backup wicketkeeper. He has good shots in his bank but lacks consistency.

Fabien Allen – Missed his flight for CPL and was terribly trolled for his carelessness. He must be looking forward to his IPL joruney and contribute few with the bat as well as the ball.

Mohammad Nabi – A very good all rounder and there should be no doubt about it. He has been a vital part of SRH since the last couple of years. He might be a very good option in the playing 11 but again the management has to do a lot of work on the substitution.

Rashid Khan – His spinning ability with a faster action and better pace makes him the stand out among all the other spinners of the tournament. It’s been many years since he’s been playing the international cricket but still batsmen find it difficult to read him. He is the X-Factor of the team.

Bhuvaneshwar Kumar – Since the last two years, he has struggled a lot with injuries. He was a genuine fast bowler who can swing the ball both ways. Well he has been working very hard and shall comeback much stronger this year.

Sandeep Sharma – He has done wonders with the new ball in the initial phase of his career. We won’t be surprised if the skipper makes use of his 3 overs in the powerplays itself.

Khaleel Ahmed –  The left arm versatile pacer can be a fruitful product for SRH this year. He has got a few cutters, he can angle back the ball into the right hander and also can hit good areas and is full of potential. He must be looking forward to make a big name in this tournament.

Sidharth Kaul –  He was backed very beautifully by Warner in the 2016 IPL season . Since then he hasn’t looked back. He really bowled well. He has the potential to hit the deck hard in conditions suitable to UAE.

Shahbaz Nadeem – He is an experienced campaigner who made his name into a new franchise this year. Previously he had performed quite well in few seasons for Delhi and shall be looking forward to do it now for the orange army.

Mitchell Marsh – A perfect all rounder that SRH required to fill the void of 7th position in the playing XI. His batting as well as bowling caliber may serve useful for the men in orange. But again there arises a question that where shall the management place him in the playing XI in the likes of Bairstow , warner , Williamson and Rashid.

Priyam Garg – The U-19 captain of India was not in the best of his form during the world cup but he shall try to forget everything and look fresh ahead of the start.

Virat Singh – He is another talented batsman who was a part of U-19 world cup journey this year. He holds a strike rate of around 130 in T20s in domestic career and has pretty good hitting abilities at the middle order.

Billy Stanlake – In the last few years , he has turned out to be a very stunning bowler and also made it into the Australian side. Former Aussie spinner Brad Hogg said that Billy might be in the playing XI for SRH but we can just wait and watch for the rest.

Abdul Samad – He is a very talented young batsman from jammu and Kashmir . He has an average of 40 in t20’s after playing 11 games and can be an useful entity for SRH.