Sunrisers would look for resurgence, redemption
The former champion led by Pat Cummins, which took the wooden spoon in the last edition, has a good mix of foreign recruits and experienced domestic players to handle the big task
Former champion Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) would like to step on to the field with a lot of optimism this season despite having finished at the bottom of the pile in the previous edition.
Head coach, and former New Zealand leftarm spinner, Daniel Vettori should be conscious of the fact that it has to settle down into the groove very early in the league to get the momentum and more importantly sustain it.
Led by Pat Cummins, who captained Australia to the 50over World Cup triumph, has a big task on hand — getting the combination right and bringing the best out of the domestic talent.
Though explosive batters like Aiden Markram, Travis Head, the matchwinning centurion in the World Cup final, Heinrich Klaasen, and Glenn Phillips would be key to the 2016 champion’s fortunes, it is imperative for Indians like Mayank Agarwal, Washington Sundar, leftarm spinning allrounder Abhishek Sharma, and Rahul Tripathi to come good in batting.
Dilemma
The thinktank will face a dilemma as to whom to pick from the foreign pool even as it has plenty of options in case a couple them fail to come good.
With Cummins, wicketkeeperbatter Klaasen, and Head being certain to play in most of the games, it would be interesting to see who among Markram, Phillips and Hasaranga would be consistently preferred. of
Cummins to spearhead
In bowling, Cummins will spearhead an attack which has the experience of Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, leftarm pacer T. Natarajan, the fiery Umran Mallik, and Jaydev Unadkat to provide the early breakthroughs.
It will be interesting to see how the middleovers are marshalled by the likes of legspinners Wanindu Hasaranga and Mayank Markande, and the leftarm spinners Shahbaz Ahmed and Abhishek Sharma.
The Eden test
Sunrisers need to get going from the opening game against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens on March 23.