Sunrisers Hyderabad had a roller coaster of a season this year in the Indian Premier League (IPL). They started out with two defeats before going on a winning streak of five matches. SRH then lost their next five matches which virtually ruled them out of the playoff race, in which they were among the frontrunners when they were on their winning streak.
SRH’s season was defined by the emergence of a formidable pace attack consisting of the fiery Umran Malik, and the experienced pair of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and T Natarajan. Natarajan, however, could not finish the season due to an injury. Additionally, SRH were without Washington Sundar for much of the season, which affected both their bowling and batting departments.
“The injuries that we had in the middle of the tournament with Washington Sundar and Natarajan really threw us a little bit. We found it difficult to recapture that winning momentum,” said head coach Tom Moody, speaking on SRH’s official Youtube channel.
SRH eventually ended up finishing eighth on the 10-team table, with only struggling former champions Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians below them. Moody said that some of the close defeats during the league stage also affected the team.
“We’ve got plenty to work on. There’s no question of that. And we are aware of that. We would have liked to have found ourselves further up the table. But a couple of incidents in the middle phase of this tournament just threw us a little bit.”
