Every IPL Team plays it’s opponent twice in the competition, once at home ground and once away. Each Team tries its best to make the maximum use of home conditions and strategies accordingly. Winning most home matches and trying best for a few away wins have been a standard strategy in the IPL. In this series, we look at each team and its relationship with its home venue and its likely strategy this year. 

The grand city of Hyderabad is represented by the Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise in the IPL. Deccan Chargers, who won the IPL 2009 was dissolved after 2012 and a new-look Sunrisers team took the field for the first time. The home ground for both the teams has remained same, the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium (RGIS).

The stadium, inaugurated in late 2005 has hosted four Tests and five ODIs so far. the most famous match on the ground remains the one where Sachin Tendulkar’s fabulous knock of 175 went in vain as India failed to chase Australia’s total of 350/4 in 2009. RGIS also hosted the opening and the final match of the IPL 2017 since SRH was the winner last year.

SRH Record at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium (All Seasons)

* – First phase of the IPL 2014 was played in UAE

** – SRH played three of its home matches as Visakhapattanam

After putting up a brilliant home performance in the first season at home, the SRH team found it difficult to cope up with the home ground. Returning from UAE, they could win only one match at home and lost three in 2014 season. The gradual improvement and better understanding of the pitch led SRH to brief success in 2016.

The ramp-up happened in 2017 as SRH turned its home ground into a fort and won six out of the seven matches played at the home ground. The pitch in the last season assisted swing bowlers early and later became good for bowling spin. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rashid Khan made tremendous use of the conditions to leverage SRH’s home record.

Also Read: IPL 2018 Preview: Sunrisers Hyderabad – The Deccan King

Pitch Condition:

This is a good bat-first pitch. It is usually a flat track while batting first and tends to slow down as the game progresses thus making a spin bowler important. The highest chase at this ground is 150 by DD in the 2016 IPL season. The Average first innings total is around 144.

For IPL 2018:

Sunrisers Hyderabad retained their two-times purple cap winner, Bhuvneshwar who will once again lead the pace attack. They have two good spinners in Rashid Khan and Shakib Al Hasan. Their remaining pace battery is quite inexperienced but possesses speed – Basil Thampi, Khaleed Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Siddharth Kaul, T Natarajan.

SRH has the perfect batting line-up to play at this ground. They have Warner and Dhawan who will attack early and score runs when it’s easier. They can then rely on Manish Pandey and Kane Williamson to keep up the scoring rate with Hooda/Brathwaite/Yusuf Pathan to finish heavy.