New Delhi: Last year, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s no-holds-barred hitting caught the eye and took them all the way until they were beaten in the Indian Premier League final. But the same approach of being naturally aggressive might have brought about Sunrisers Hyderabad’s downfall in the 2025 IPL.
After adding more batting and bowling firepower in the form of Ishan Kishan and Mohammed Shami in a retained list of Heinrich Klaasen, skipper Pat Cummins, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, they were ready to blaze from all quarters in IPL 2025.
But only three wins in 11 matches, with seven defeats and an abandonment against Delhi Capitals on Monday made them the third team after Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals to be pushed out of reckoning for the play-offs.
They began with a bang, scoring the second highest total (286) ever in the tournament’s history in an opening round win over Rajasthan, but their campaign ended on a whimper with the batting unit struggling to post big scores regularly.
‘Tricky pitches’
Head coach Daniel Vettori though pointed to his team’s inability to produce ‘complete’ performances consistently rather than their aggressive batting approach.
“Obviously, it’s disappointing. We came in with high hopes, but we haven’t been consistent enough with our performances. I’ve spoken to you guys a number of times around just not being able to put complete performances together. Today was the start of a complete performance, so it’s frustrating that we couldn’t finish it but that’s cricket,” he said after his team’s elimination from the play-offs race.
The former New Zealand spinner also mentioned that pitches on their home ground of the Uppal Stadium weren’t always conducive to all-out hitting, though he clarified that it wasn’t their default approach.
“I definitely didn’t say after every match I was backing an aggressive approach. I said we’re about assessing conditions and this year, the conditions weren’t as we expected. If you look at last year, there were a lot of high-scoring games here,” the former left arm spinner said.
“These surfaces in particular have been a little bit different. It has been tricky, it hasn’t been easy for the batters. All we’ve talked about is assessing conditions, trying to read the game and understand what to do in certain situations. I think the guys are innately aggressive, but certainly, this season has been about trying to establish what’s been required on the day.”
As conditions were more bowler-friendly, Hyderabad’s rate of posting big scores reduced to one in six homes games, with opposing teams managing to cross 200 three times, down from seven last year.
‘Not bowling in tandem’
To add to their batting woes, has been incoherency in bowling performances. Shami was expected to complement Cummins with the new ball. But the India pacer was left out of the playing XI against Delhi after a difficult season of six wickets on nine games at an average of 56.16 and strike rate of 11.23.
But it hasn’t been only about Shami, who was asked to don different roles, fellow seamer Jaydev Unadkat explained.
“From my experience of playing in the IPL, for a team to do well, there has to be at least three or four guys, in terms of your bowling, who have to contribute in every game. And probably this year I would say that we are lacking that when two guys are bowling well, the other three are probably not really bowling in tandem,” he said.
“There have been two surfaces that have been 250-plus, and there have been four here that have been probably more conducive for the fast bowlers. Not so much the spinners but new ball has been a little bit sticky, hard to hit, not coming onto the bat. The IPL has some of the best new-ball bowlers in the world and they were able to exploit those conditions,” Vettori said.
“It’s obviously been a tough season so far for Shami. But he’s been working exceptionally hard in the background. We just saw, particularly on this Hyderabad wicket that’s the best make up of the team for us.
“If you look at his overall performance, he’s been able to be a wicket-taker. He’s bowled [in] a number of different roles for us. He’s been able to mix and match depending on who’s selected in the team,” he added.
Only three wins in 11 matches, made Sunrisers Hyderabad the third team after Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals to be pushed out of reckoning for the IPL 2025 play-offs. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
