IPL 2018: 3 reasons why Sunrisers Hyderabad won’t win the title

Sunrisers Hyderabad have been one of the best teams so far in this season, but they definitely have their issues. Their bowling has been the best among all the teams, but the same cannot be said about their batting. Although they will most likely qualify in the top 4, (maybe even top 2) they have to sort out their flaws before they can think of winning the title again. Many times there have been favourites to win the crown but they have been knocked out during the playoffs. Here are 3 reasons why SRH won’t win the IPL for the second time.

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#3 Injuries are bound to haunt them

Billy Stanlake has been ruled out of IPL 2018 due to a finger injury

Like most of the teams, SRH too have faced injury concerns with their fast bowlers, but their squad depth has helped them. Players like Sandeep Sharma and Siddharth Kaul have been very good this season. But when their main batsman got injured, they faced problems. When Shikhar Dhawan got injured, they replaced him by Ricky Bhui who did not impress. He is still playing with a slight injury as his elbow is padded up, which can be dangerous.

If he gets a long term injury it can mean trouble for SRH as they do not have a perfect replacement for him. They can include Alex Hales but that means they will have to change their balance of foreign players and this can harm the side terribly.

#2 Over reliance on top order and weak middle-order

Deepak Hooda has been dropped from the SRH side due to poor form

There is no secret that the batting is a weak link for SRH currently. Their average score with the bat has been a paltry 146. Moreover their average score in their wins has been a disappointing 134. Like previous years, this year too their middle order has failed. After spending so much on Manish Pandey and Deepak Hooda, the cricketers have failed to live up to their expectations.

They are over-reliable on Dhawan to provide good starts and Williamson to bat throughout the innings. Pandey who is supposed to put his foot on the accelerator in the middle overs after Williamson gets out is batting at a below par strike rate of 112.8. It is disappointing to see that even bowlers like R. Ashwin have a better strike rate than Pandey. He has the lowest strike rate among the top-30 highest run-getters this season. Due to this, there is pressure on Shakib Al Hasan to start firing from the very first ball. The lower middle order has been decent with Yusuf Pathan and to an extent even Rashid Khan hitting the big shots.

#1 Defending small targets and batting first

It will be tough for SRH to win games in the playoffs

The trend which was set in the early part of the tournament worked perfectly for the Sunrisers. They have won a total of 6 matches and 3 have come by when they were batting first. They won all those 3 matches chasing scores below 150 and on only one occasion it was prolific.

After that, on two consecutive times they failed to chase a slightly above par target. Against KXIP one can say that the Gayle storm was too much for the SRH batsman, but against CSK a target of 182 at Hyderabad was not out of reach, but they made a mess of it. Since then, they won all their matches batting first and their bowlers have done the job every single time.

But if in the playoff stage they are bowling first and if the opposition can make anything in excess of 150 it will be tough for SRH to chase it down. Their batting will have to improve drastically but what gives SRH an edge is that in pressure games the opposition will be looking to chase and if SRH are defending, their bowling will definitely trust themselves to win it.