Kolkata: Until last year, there was something distinctive about the way Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) chose to build their identity, unapologetically indulging in batting excess. With India validating that approach with a T20 World Cup win, it has quietly morphed into a template now. Which still is quite risky given how uncomplicated and ruthless Sunrisers’ batting motto has been–-attacking first, attacking longer and embracing the chaos that follows.
Having Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan and Heinrich Klaasen in the top order facilitates that open-ended strategy. These are already some of the biggest names in T20 cricket. Add the context of India’s recent World Cup win and Sunrisers’ batting potential looks immense. This is a top order that doesn’t just aim to score quickly, but to overwhelm.
Expect Abhishek and Head to pick up from where they had left last season. But that’s just the start. Mercurial, explosive, and fresh from a World Cup high, Kishan is both a continuation of the top-order philosophy and a potential bridge if early wickets fall. Klaasen, remains one of the most destructive middle-order players in the world—especially against spin—and is arguably the most important batter in this line-up when the pitch slows down. If Abhishek and Head are about chaos, Klaasen is about control within that.
The top three team scores last season—286/6, 278/3 and 247/2—belonged to Sunrisers, and 300 this time looks very much attainable. At least that’s what the other teams must be bracing for. Yet, it also raises an obvious question: what happens when it doesn’t come off?
The challenge for Sunrisers is that their batting, for all its firepower, is undeniably top-heavy. There is an implicit gamble here: that enough games will be won in the first 10 overs to offset the ones where early wickets expose a thinner middle and lower order. It’s by definition a high-risk, high-reward strategy that basically has no backup plan. So, as is often the case in T20 cricket, the real story may lie with the ball, whether the bowling unit can keep pace with the chaos their batters could spark.
The Cummins factor
That’s where Pat Cummins comes in. He isn’t a conventional T20 captain in the sense of being a specialist in the format, but what he does offer is clarity—in planning, execution, and temperament. His ability to manage resources, particularly in high-scoring environments, will be central to SRH’s fortunes.
As a bowler, pace was never the best quality of Cummins. On slow surfaces though, his slower bouncers could be a dealbreaker. More compelling is his ability to peg away at good lengths, especially in the Powerplay and death overs. The economy rate may not always sparkle, but Cummins’s knack of delivering crucial breakthroughs often shifts the momentum in tight matches.
Around Cummins, the Sunrisers bowling attack may lack glamour but not flair. Harshal Patel remains a fascinating bowler who thrives on deception rather than pace, capable of bowling six slower ones at one go. But at his worst, he can also become woefully predictable. Rahul Chahar’s looping leg-breaks and quicker googlies give the team an attacking option during the phase where many sides look merely to contain runs. Younger options like Zeeshan Ansari represent the kind of emerging talent that can define a season if they find rhythm early.
And Sunrisers need that desperately because that’s the paradox of this side—for all the attention on their batting, their bowling might go on to determine their ceiling.
Living with volatility
Most IPL franchises tend to be conservative with their team building—focusing on steady scoring accumulation and bowling depth. Sunrisers have done away with that approach long back. It’s this comfort with volatility that makes them such a difficult franchise to assess and analyse. With them, games defy matchups, scores escalate rapidly, and collapses arrive just as suddenly. And they don’t seem to mind it.
What also makes this tactic highly risky is the length of time involved. The T20 World Cup lasts barely a month, but IPL stretches to 10 weeks. It’s next to impossible for SRH to sustain the momentum for that long, as was evident last season when they finished sixth despite the barrage of high scores. They may be the most entertaining team in the league, but are also a complicated side to trust with in a competition that has awarded consistency and pragmatic cricket.
The IPL however has been undergoing change even when it’s not taking place. Increasingly, it is being defined by extremes: bigger scores, faster scoring rates and bolder tactical experiments. Having engineered that evolution, Sunrisers obviously want to keep pushing the boundaries. The ultimate validation though must come in the form of an IPL win. In a league where 200 has become routine and 220 no longer guarantees safety, SRH’s season may ultimately be decided not by how menacingly they bat but by whether their bowlers can hold their nerve when it matters the most.
