Our final preview of IPL 2024 is SRH who endured a very difficult season last time out, finishing bottom of the league.
For the 2nd mini-auction in a row Sunrisers were very active making significant changes to their squad in a bid to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2020. The 3 seasons since then have resulted in 2 wooden spoon finishes. What kind of tournament are SRH set for in IPL 2024?
It's difficult to find too many positives from SRH's performance in IPL 2023. Of the 4 games they did win, 3 of them came against fellow strugglers PBKS, KKR and DC while the final victory came from a last ball win against a Rajasthan side who had gone to pieces late in the season. Against opposition of any note, they consistently looked outgunned in almost every department.
Heinrich Klaasen was the only batsmen to come out of the season with any credit scoring 448 runs at an average just shy of 50 and strike rate of 177.
Elsewhere, barring the occasional knock, every other batter had a difficult time of it as SRH regularly shifted their resources up and down the order in the hunt for successful combinations.
Abhishek Sharma was given the task of trying to take an aggressive approach in the powerplay but managed just 117 runs at a strike rate of 136, figures that pale in comparison to what the premium openers were offering up. Playing him at the top of the order also left SRH short of left-handed options in the middle overs, a fact that was regularly exploited by opposition attacks.
With ball in hand, Bhuvi was as consistent as ever and picked up 16 wickets at an economy of 8.33. It was noticeable that he was the only player to appear in all 14 matches of IPL 2023 as SRH struggled to come to any firm conclusion over what their best XI was.
Other bowlers such as Jansen and Markande certainly had their moments with the ball but by in large SRH were unable to find penetration or to contain sides scoring across all phases of the game.
Leadership both on and off the pitch looked a significant issue for SRH in IPL 2023. A new coach with very little experience in that role and at this level in Brian Lara plus a new captain in Aiden Markram struggled to stitch together this group of players and at key times in many of their matches, SRH looked lost on what direction and tactics to take.
To understand the lack of leadership at SRH, you really need to go back even further and look at the amount of chopping and changing that has gone on with coaches, directors of cricket and captains over the last few years.
2023 was the culmination of those off-field problems following on from their woeful efforts at the end of IPL 2022. In total it means the franchise have managed just 5 wins in their last 21 IPL fixtures, a record that is going to be incredibly difficult to overcome in IPL 2024.
The revolving door at Sunrisers means they are always worth a watch at any auction and they didn’t disappoint in their bidding for IPL 2024 by going in big for a couple of Aussie World Cup winners.
Travis Head adds a much needed left-hand option to the batting while SRH will hope that Pat Cummins can offer more control than they’ve managed to exert in recent seasons. Cummins performance in that World Cup in India suggests he's also added a bit of additional variation to when we last saw him in the IPL with KRR.
The Aussie skipper has also taken over the captaincy from Aiden Markram and while he certainly has greater experience of leading a team at the highest level, it does mean that for SRH it is yet another season with yet another different player at the helm.
You could see from the reaction of the SRH contingent that they were delighted to get Hasaranga at his base price. A high quality wrist spinner was a must buy for the Sunrisers and you could argue that removing the captaincy from Markram also provides the Sri Lankan with a clearer path into the starting XI.
It was noticeable that SRH were keen to bring in an experienced Indian seamer but failed in bids for Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur and instead having to settle for Jaydev Unadkat. That leaves them potentially vulnerable if form and fitness concerns in their existing stock of quicks appear once again.
Career T20 records v types of bowling and in phases of the game
This is an SRH squad whose batsmen continue to have some significant limitations. Success for them in IPL 2024 then will rest on new coach Daniel Vettori's ability to limit the exposure of those weaknesses while trying to build on what strengths remain.
Travis Head is likely to open the batting and given his record against slow bowling it would be serious risk to expect him to deliver from anywhere else in the order. SRH faced a similar problem with Harry Brook last season but at least in Head they can maintain a left-handed option at the top of the order and potentially look to pair him with Mayank Agarwal who can play a more aggressive role should teams look to target SRH with spin in the powerplay.
That change would also allow Abhishek Sharma to be shunted back down the order and avoid SRH being left with a right hand dominant batting line-up again. His record against wrist-spin in particular will also be an important factor during those middle overs. He enters IPL 2024 as the 2nd highest run scorer in the Syed Musthaq Ali trophy this season where he largely opened the batting for eventual champions Punjab.
At number 3, SRH will be hoping for much more from Rahul Tripathi in IPL 2024. His performances 12 months earlier had been good enough to catapult him into the national team but with just a solitary 50 to his name in IPL 2023, the chances of him regaining a place prior to the World Cup look slim unless he can hit another purple patch. In between IPL's his form for Goa has also been poor.
As alluded to above, Aiden Markram's spot at number 4 is now under threat as a result of him losing the captaincy. SRH have plenty of overseas batting options not to mention Cummins with the ball who replaces the South African as skipper.
One of those spots surely has to go to Heinrich Klaasen who over the last 24 months has established himself as arguably the best middle order batsmen in T20 cricket. With almost every other batter wanting to play in the top 3, Klaasen's ability to consistently dominate the match in the later half of an innings makes him priceless. If SRH can deliver any kind of platform then he has the ball striking ability to win them games.
Shahbaz Ahmed and Washington Sundar provide all-round options for SRH while Abdul Samad looks likely to continue as a pure finisher. Samad was responsible for the last ball 6 that remains SRH's most recent win in the IPL. With Cummins potentially batting at number 8 then SRH will feel that they have the depth and firepower to be more consistent this season than they were last.
Career T20 bowling stats by phase of the game
SRH will continue to be very reliant on Bhuvi during IPL 2024. His record in the powerplay is absolutely phenomenal and the purchase of Cummins is presumably designed to allow him to bowl at least 2 overs during that phase of the game without leaving themselves short later on.
Cummins career record to date shows that he is capable of bowling throughout the innings although where he does the bulk of his work may depend on who he lines up alongside.
Umran Malik had a poor IPL 2023 bowling just 20 overs in the 8 games in which he did appear in. To get the best from him, SRH will need to pair him with players who can limit opposition scoring in those middle overs and with the addition of Hasranga and Cummins perhaps that looks a more likely proposition than it did last year.
The Sri Lankan wrist-spinner was not at his best for RCB in IPL 2023 but his form otherwise across both franchise and international cricket remains strong and he is currently ranked as the 2nd best T20i bowler by the ICC. Since the departure of Rashid Khan in 2021, SRH have been desperately looking for a slow bowler who can dominate that middle phase of the game and in Hasaranga they might just have found the solution.
Recent IPL records at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium also show that this is a much harder venue to score boundaries at than what Hasaranga experienced in Bangalore. There, mishits regularly disappear over the boundary while in Hyderabad a wrist-spinner might be able to pick up a few more victims caught in the deep.
With the likes of Washington Sundar and Shahbaz Ahmed offering good finger spinning options and the possibility of exploiting favourable match-ups in both the powerplay and middle overs then SRH's attack looks fairly well balanced.
The final piece of the jigsaw will be to get in a left-armer who can bowl at the death. Natarajan has been the man that SRH have turned to in that role for some years now and as his stats above show, he regularly bowls 2 of the last 5 overs for his team. The alternative will be to bring in the highly experienced Unadkat who will be playing for his 8th IPL franchise in IPL 2024.
While there are many reasons to think that SRH will struggle again in IPL 2024 not least of all due to their awful record over the past tournament and a half, I still think that they could be this season's dark horses.
Their auction buys have generally added both strength, depth and perhaps most importantly leadership to a struggling groups of players.
There are also signs that their squad more generally is better balanced than many other franchises coming into IPL 2024. Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Hasaranga and Cummins all offer options and depth with both bat and ball leaving SRH needing to find 7 or 8 specialists to fit around them.
One of those specialists will be Heinrich Klassen who is arguably the best T20 batsmen in world cricket. If SRH can find a top 4 combination that can have even an average season, then he has the X-factor to push them over the top.
The appointment of Daniel Vettori is also a significant upgrade on the untried Brian Lara. Fantastic player though he may have been, the West Indian has never struck me as a tactical thinker or great leader, whereas in Vettori SRH have appointed a man who has prior experience coaching at the top level including a 4 year stint with RCB. In fact, Vetorri was the last man to lead Bangalore to a final (IPL 2016) where of course they lost to the Sunrisers in what remains their one and only IPL title to date.
As is usually the case, it'll be a mad scramble for that final playoff spot but perhaps this will SRH's season.
All stats used in this blog are from my own database which is freely accessible at T20 head to head. Images are my own with the exception of player profiles and background images which are used under a creative commons license or otherwise royalty free
