IPL 2019: Report Card at the halfway stage of the tournament

#4 Sunrisers Hyderabad: 7/10

The blazing form of their opening combination is Sunrisers' biggest advantage.

Conventionally, SRH has been a bowling-oriented team. The Afghan duo of Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi has extended the practice to yet another year. However, their opener juggernauts David Warner and Jonny Bairstow have ensured that Sunrisers will not be about the bowlers alone. Contributing more than 600 runs, they are easily the best opening pair of the tournament and have won a few matches on their own. Nevertheless, Sunrisers have quite a few glaring problems too, left to be solved.

Sandeep Sharma with 8 wickets is their only in-form seamer. Bhuvneswar Kumar and Siddarth Kaul have not found their rhythm yet, but that issue pales in comparison with their middle order woes. They desperately miss their captain, Kane Williamson's experience in holding the innings together. Heavily reliant on the openers, their middle order has often looked clueless on the field. Apart from Vijay Shankar, no middle order batsman has scored more than 100 runs.

The current setup has a bleak chance of making it into the playoffs as removing the openers cheaply would choke the team. However, Williamson's return is almost assured to turn things around. He is an astute captain who can keep his XI motivated and a reliable middle-order batsman who can keep the scoreboard ticking- a chimaera for all of SRH's problems. Provided that he quickly gets into the groove, Sunrisers can be in serious contention for an eliminator spot or even a top-two finish.

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