Sunrisers Hyderabad had an intriguing auction where they made some smart buys, but also went through with some logic-defying acquisitions. At first glance the squad composition looks heavily lopsided in favour of bowlers.
Their most expensive buy was Nicholas Pooran, upon whom they splurged INR 10.75 crores. Last season, their main issue was the lack of firepower in the batting order. They have tried to address this by getting Rahul Tripathi at INR 8.50 crores, Aiden Markram at INR 2.60 crores, and also bought back Priyam Garg at the base price.
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Sunrisers Hyderabad squad for IPL 2022:
Kane Williamson (c), Umran Malik, Abdul Samad, Washington Sundar, Nicholas Pooran, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Priyam Garg, Rahul Tripathi, Abhishek Sharma, Kartik Tyagi, Shreyas Gopal, Jagadeesha Suchith, Aiden Markram, Marco Jansen, Romario Shepherd, Sean Abbott, R Samarth, Shashank Singh, Saurabh Dubey, Vishnu Vinod, Glenn Phillips, Fazalhaq Farooqi
Strength
- The bowling attack looks potent, at least on paper. Not only have they retained Malik, but have also drafted in Tyagi. The two young fast bowlers will combine with Natarajan and Bhuvneshwar to makes it an excellent blend of youth and experience. While Natarajan and Tyagi can be their death-overs specialist, Malik can be used in the middle overs.
- They have also got Sundar, who has a knack for taking wickets in the Powerplay, and can also contribute with the bat.
Weakness
The biggest conundrum for them will be filling up four overseas slots. If Williamson and Pooran are fixed in the playing XI, it leaves only two slots while there are many contenders.
- They spent a combined total of INR 14.35 crores for Jansen, Shepherd and Abbott, none of whom is a guaranteed starter.
- Given his recent form, spending over 10 crores on Pooran may backfire. If he fails to perform in the first few games, they will have to go with Phillips, who has played only three IPL games.
Strongest possible XI for IPL 2022
Kane Williamson (c), Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Abdul Samad, Romario Shepherd, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kartik Tyagi, T. Natarajan