One of the most familiar faces associated with Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), Tom Moody, will be missed for sure this Indian Premier League (IPL) season. The move was surprising given the bond Moody had with the other big names in the support staff such as V. V. S. Laxman and Muttiah Muralitharan.
The team opted to replace the former Aussie international with countryman Trevor Bayliss, who guided England to the One-Day International World Cup title last year. And he will have another former Australia international, Brad Haddin, as his deputy.
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The Hyderabad franchise, the 2016 IPL champion that has made it to the playoffs five times, continues to be a formidable team even though it spent the least among the eight teams at the December auction as the important slots, both in batting and bowling, were already filled.
At the top of the batting order are Jonny Bairstow and captain David Warner, followed by Kane Williamson. In a 20-over match, if the trio can get going, there will be very little for their teammates to do but watch.
Significantly, there is an abundance of talent down the order in Vijay Shankar, Manish Pandey, the exciting young star Priyam Garg, Abdul Samad, Mitchell Marsh, Fabian Allen as well as Afghan all-rounder Mohammad Nabi, who is capable of chipping in with substantial contributions.
The bowling, too, has class, depth and variety, but Bhuvneshwar Kumar, not long ago rated as the best death-overs bowler, might struggle to find his rhythm after returning from injury and rehab. But his new-ball partners Siddarth Kaul and Basil Thampi are good and on their day can test the best batting line-ups.
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However, if there is one thing the other teams have to worry about, it’s the deadly Afghan spin duo of Nabi and Rashid Khan, the latter taking the art of containing and picking wickets in the shortest format to a new level.
While retaining young names Abhishek Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed, T. Natarajan and Sandeep Sharma, SRH has shored up the bench strength by signing Aussie Mitchell Marsh and India under-19 captain Priyam Garg.
Virat Singh, Jharkhand’s top run-getter in the last Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, and Garg were bought for ₹1.9 crore each and are tipped to be the surprise package with the bat.
Perhaps the one big name the team might miss badly this season is the experienced Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan who has been banned from all cricket for two years, with one of those suspended, after he accepted three charges of breaching the International Cricket Council’s anti-corruption code.
Meanwhile, SRH released familiar names Martin Guptill, Ricky Bhui and Yusuf Pathan.
Top three run-getters
Top three wicket-takers
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