IPL 2023: Lacklustre Sunrisers Hyderabad eye elusive win over high-flying Punjab Kings

Brian Lara

Two matches, two losses. Indeed, Sunrisers Hyderabad began their 2023 season on a disastrous note. As they face a confident Punjab Kings outfit on Sunday night, SRH hope to reverse their fortunes and get the ball rolling in their favour. A third straight defeat would complicate things for SRH.

Batting continues to be SRH's achilles heel. The batters have stumbled badly. If the Lucknow Super Giants' spin trio of all-rounder Krunal Pandya, 40-year-old Amit Mishra and young Ravi Bishnoi triggered the SRH collapse on the slow and low black-soil wicket at Lucknow, Rajasthan Royals' pacer Trent Boult and leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal hastened the end on a good sporting wicket in the first match at Hyderabad.

Coach Lara's biggest test

West Indies legend Brian Lara faces the biggest test as coach as he has to find a winning formula to lift the team's morale. It was an all-round failure in the first match as the bowlers and batters faltered. But in the second match, the batting flopped and the bowlers did not have enough runs on the board. "I think we are losing a lot of wickets in clumps. In the first game we lost two wickets in the first over. Tonight [Friday], we lost three wickets in seven balls which changed the complexion of the game. So, we definitely have to look at our batting and come up with a solution for it," Lara said at Lucknow.

SRH might have been happy when they made two important additions to the team by roping in discarded Indian opener Mayank Agarwal, who had a good domestic season and England's attacking sensation Harry Brook in an attempt to bolster their batting which was the reason for their poor show last year. However, at least in the first two matches this season, these two batters have failed much to the chagrin of the team.

Batting in India needs different set of skills. The likes of Aiden Markram, Brook (their costliest purchase) and Glenn Phillips have found the going hard. However, the Indian batters, who know the conditions better than the foreign recruits, are required to show better application. Agarwal has been dismissed for low scores. So too are the other Indian batters and this has hurt SRH.

Also read: IPL 2023: SRH bank on Proteas fire!

PBKS openers in form

The hosts run into a rampaging Punjab, who have made a big statement in their first two matches. Prabhsimran Singh and skipper Shikhar Dhawan have been impressive and aggressive. SRH bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik, T Natarajan and Adil Rashid have to be more disciplined otherwise these two openers could play havoc at the top. Punjab had a tight match against Rajasthan Royals but Arshdeep Singh, utility all-rounder Sam Curran and Australian swing bowler Nathan Ellis swung the match in Punjab's favour.

The odds are stacked against SRH, but one good show could put the Lara-coached team back on track.