Sunrisers Hyderabad is one of the most consistent teams in the Indian Premier League. They have qualified for the playoffs for three consecutive years and bagged the IPL title in 2016 by beating Royal Challengers Bangalore in the final. SRH is one team who has the strongest bowling lineup in the IPL and this year too, they will pose threat to other teams with a star-studded bowling arsenal.
The responsibility of the batting department lied upon David Warner in the last few seasons. Though he missed the previous IPL after the ball-tampering incident, Kane Williamson pulled his game up in Warner’s absence and won the orange cap. Shikhar Dhawan was traded to Delhi Capitals and the team will miss his services, but Williamson and Warner are expected to boost the SRH batting this time around.
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However, SRH was firing throughout the IPL 2018 but they lost their mojo during the fag end of the tournament. They lost their last three games as well as the qualifier one and the break in winning momentum didn’t help them in the final. CSK thrashed them comfortably in the finale and won the game with nine balls to spare. They were missing the X factor which can bridge the batting and bowling lineup. Who can turn up this year as the X factor for SRH?
Vijay Shankar
Vijay Shankar was busy with Team India lately. He played several One-Day International games this year, where he was expected to fill the big boots of Hardik Pandya, who was nursing a back injury. This was a big ask for Shankar but he has shown few glimpses of being the backup all-rounder in Team India. His batting potential was on display while wearing Blue and team management promoted him in the middle-order as well. Also, he bowled the match-winning last over in Nagpur ODI against Australia.
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Thus, Hyderabad will be hoping high from young all-rounder. He was with Delhi Daredevils (Delhi Capitals now) last year and had a decent tournament. SRH traded him for Shikhar Dhawan but it will be interesting to see whether Shankar can justify this trade and be the needed X factor for this team.
