IPL 2021: SWOT Analysis of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)

The Sunrisers Hyderabad have been one of the most consistent teams in the IPL. The Orange Army was a late entrant in the league. However, they already have one championship to their name in their brief existence. The Sunrisers captured the IPL title under David Warner’s leadership during the 2016 season.

After that tournament, SRH has always made it to the Top 4. But the championship has stayed away from the Sunrisers. Last year, they made a slow start in the United Arab Emirates. Eventually, they came back and defeated the Top 3 teams of the competition to storm into the playoffs. Hyderabad knocked the Royal Challengers Bangalore out of IPL 2020 before the Delhi Capitals ended their campaign.

This year, the Hyderabad-based franchise was not so active at the IPL Auction. They retained their core group of players and added a few back-up options. Here is a complete SWOT Analysis of the Sunrisers Hyderabad squad for IPL 2021.

SRH Final Squad for IPL 2021-

David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Shreevats Goswami, Wriddhiman Saha, Virat Singh, Priyam Garg, Mohammad Nabi, Vijay Shankar, Kedar Jadhav, Mitchell Marsh, Jason Holder, Abdul Samad, Rashid Khan, Abhishek Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Siddarth Kaul, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Khaleel Ahmed, T Natarajan, Sandeep Sharma, Basil Thampi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jagadeesha Suchith.

Purse Remaining- 6.95 Crore

IPL 2021: SWOT Analysis of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)

Strengths – Top Order

The Sunrisers Hyderabad have one of the most destructive top-order lineups in IPL 2021. Skipper David Warner has always scored big in the IPL, while his partnership with Jonny Bairstow was excellent in 2019. Last year, Wriddhiman Saha opened for Hyderabad and did a wonderful job.

David Warner will have to make the tough call of picking either Bairstow or Saha as his opening partner. It will be hard to ignore Saha because of his top-quality performances as well as the fact that he qualifies as an Indian player. If SRH bench Bairstow, they could include Mujeeb ur Rahman, Jason Holder, Mitchell Marsh, or Mohammad Nabi in the playing XI.

Kane Williamson and Manish Pandey provide solid back-up to the opening batsmen. Williamson played a classic knock under pressure against the Royal Challengers Bangalore last year. Meanwhile, even Pandey played a couple of effective innings for the Hyderabad-based franchise.

Weaknesses – Middle-order batsmen

The Sunrisers Hyderabad have an unreliable middle-order. They have untested players like Virat Singh in the squad. Even Abhishek Sharma or Priyam Garg could not impress much despite receiving multiple opportunities. Both players are still young and will definitely evolve into match-winners. But they will have to play better in IPL 2021.

The Sunrisers cannot rely on their Top 3 batsmen to do the job all the time. The likes of Singh, Sharma, Garg, and even Abdul Samad should aim to support the top order to perfection. The Sunrisers have got good overseas finishers in Jason Holder, Mitchell Marsh, and Mohammad Nabi.

Kedar Jadhav has joined the franchise ahead of IPL 2021. The Sunrisers signed him because of his experience. But the fans should consider that Jadhav has never aggregated more than 300 runs in a single IPL season. Thus, the middle-order seems to be SRH’s biggest weakness.

Opportunities – Two seasoned domestic cricket all-rounders in SRH

The Sunrisers Hyderabad have many young and inexperienced players in their middle-order. However, they have got some big domestic cricket names in their all-rounders’ section. Vijay Shankar was deemed by many as the next big thing in Indian cricket, but he has disappointed his fans so far.

The Orange Army has retained Vijay Shankar once again for IPL 2021. Shankar will be keen to make his mark because the squad has similar players like Mitchell Marsh and Jason Holder. The other Indian all-rounder with good domestic experience is Jagadeesha Suchith.

Many IPL fans would remember that Suchith was once a star all-rounder for the Mumbai Indians before Krunal Pandya joined the franchise. Suchith has not been able to make his mark in the IPL of late. But if he gets consistent opportunities, he could be an asset for the Sunrisers.

Threats – Injury concerns

The biggest threat to the Sunrisers Hyderabad is their players’ injury concerns. Last year, multiple players of the Hyderabad-based franchise could not play the full tournament because of their injuries. The Sunrisers will hope former Purple Cap winner Bhuvneshwar Kumar is available for the entire season.

The last few years have not been so great for Bhuvneshwar when it comes to fitness and injuries. All-rounder Vijay Shankar has suffered injuries regularly, while even Mitchell Marsh is an injury-prone player. Wriddhiman Saha missed the crucial Qualifier 2 game because of an injury in IPL 2020.

It goes without saying that the Sunrisers Hyderabad missed out on the IPL 2020 championship majorly because of the injuries in their camp. If the same things happen, SRH will likely lose a few games while trying to settle a winning XI. Thus, the injury concerns remain the most significant threat to the Orange Army’s chances in IPL 2021.