Banned Australian opener David Warner, who was also the captain of the Indian Premier League Franchise (IPL), Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), will be dearly missed by the team. However, SRH head coach Tom Moody feels that it had “very little” impact on the team as they have a well-balanced squad with enough depth to replace the former captain. Sunrisers Hyderabad had to replace their regular skipper Warner with New Zealand captain Kane Williamson after BCCI barred the Warner from IPL 11, following the one-year ban imposed by Cricket Australia for his role in the ball tampering scandal in South Africa.
Talking to the reporters about the same, Tom said, “Very little, to be honest with you. We have a very well balanced squad where we have a number of different people that can fill different roles within the team. We are replacing a good captain in David Warner, who was vice-captain of the Australian team, with another international captain (Kane Williamson).”
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Moody said that the depth and balance in the SRH squad will help them in the upcoming season. They picked a satisfactory squad in the players’ auction 2018. Therefore, losing an impact player like Warner, will not have a huge impact on the squad.
The head coach also hailed the leadership qualities of Williamson, he said, “We are delighted to have Kane step in as captain this year. We have all seen what he is capable of doing with his leadership with New Zealand, he said. Williamson is strategically very sound and played an important role in Sunrisers Hyderabad over the last few years.”
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On the other hand, SRh mentor, VVS Laxman said an effort has been made to address the concerns over the side’s middle order batting during the last few years. He said, ”You talked about this four, five top class batsman. But, there is a lot of depth in the batting line up and that’s something which was a conscious effort going into the auction. Because, over the last two, three years, we were not really happy that our middle order, that they did not play to the expectations, that is something which we consciously focused on, targeting players who can do well as a batsman. The team this year has got players who can do well in the middle overs and players who can finish games.”
Muttiah Muralitharan said the team has a formidable spin attack with the presence of players such as Rashid Khan, Bipul Sharma and Shakib Al Hasan.
