Champions League T20 2013: Sunrisers Hyderabad - Tactical Analysis, a conundrum and the final verdict

What is worse is that Mohali, Rajasthan, Delhi and Ahmedabad could offer totally diverse tracks to that of Sunrisers’ liking while Ranchi could go either way, adding to their woes.

On the other hand, it is true that Dale Steyn will relish being given a chance to bowl on better tracks. But we all witnessed how Steyn, despite being at his best for Deccan Chargers in the 2012 IPL season, could not make any difference to the team’s dismal showing as the opponent teams decided to play him out and target lesser bowlers.

Sunrisers should consider dropping Biplab Samantray, who seems to be in the line up for the sake of completing the playing 11, and play Anand Rajan in his place – Rajan is a 26-year-old Madhya Pradesh fast bowler, who hits good speeds for an Indian paceman.

While it might seem like an overdose of fast bowlers with Thisara Perera, Darren Sammy and Ishant Sharma already in the team, I would explain the rationale behind it later in the article.

Cameron White and JP Duminy vs Darren Sammy:

Cameron White was in woeful form for the Sunrisers last season

Sunrisers let Cameron White play 13 of their 17 matches in the IPL 2013, captaining a majority of them, despite his woeful form, as his replacements in Kumar Sangakkara and Quinton de Kock struggled even more.

With Jean-Paul Duminy back, ideally, he should be a straight swap for White. But there is one more aspect to ponder here. Although White never managed to scale great heights in the Baggy Green, the 30-year-old with 3823 runs in 172 T20 matches, widely known for his six hitting abilities, stands 12th in the list of leading run scorers in T20s.

White, just like most other Australian batsmen these days, has his troubles in tackling spinners on helpful surfaces. So with 50% of Sunrisers’ matches played at their home venue last season, could that be attributed as a reason for his failure?

Here, it’s important to note that what may work against a player in a particular tournament, may not necessarily mean failure in different conditions. For example, you cannot drop Suresh Raina in the IPL for performing poorly in the Big Bash League. While he may look clueless when being bounced out, he could still be the star that he is on his return to IPL.

The viewpoint further gains weight when you take into consideration that White, one of the standout performers for Deccan Chargers in only the previous (2012) IPL season, had scored 479 runs in 12 matches at an average of 43.54 on good batting tracks. In this CLT20, he is more likely to play on pitches that suit his style of play.

At the same time, Sunrisers cannot leave out Duminy, as the batting order will lose its direction if Dhawan is dismissed early.

They cannot afford to go in with a top 4 that consists of Parthiv Patel and Hanuma Vihari, the Indian Under-19 player who, despite possessing a very bright future ahead, hasn’t developed into a dependable T20 player yet.

Drop Darren Sammy:

With Cameron White and JP Duminy available options, it will not be easy for Darren Sammy to find a place in the playing XI

Sunrisers would be better served in having both White and Duminy facing 35 balls each on a good batting deck than Sammy facing 15 balls at the maximum, coming in at no. 6.

Sammy, at number six, also delays what Perera, one of the most destructive hitters in subcontinental conditions, can bring to the crease. After Sammy’s arrival last season, one of the two big hitters, more often than or not, ended up being underutilized by the Sunrisers.