Sunrisers Hyderabad’s defeat to Punjab Kings was not just about leaking a 220-plus chase. It was also about a selection call that seemed to change shape between the toss and the second innings. At the toss, Ishan Kishan said, “We have 2 changes. Salil comes in place of Livingstone, and Praful is making his debut today. He comes in place of Jaydev Unadkat.”
That made it sound like SRH had made a clean, last-minute call. Praful Hinge in. Jaydev Unadkat out. Fresh option, fresh plan. But when Punjab began the chase, Unadkat still ended up bowling for SRH. That is why this was more than a communication glitch. It looked like a late call SRH could not fully commit to, and once the pressure rose, they went back to the old option anyway.
SRH hinted at change, then retreated to familiarity
That is the heart of the problem. Praful Hinge is a 24-year-old Vidarbha seamer, a domestic quick still at the beginning of his T20 journey. He came into this game as the fresh name, the unknown quantity, the bowler who could at least offer Punjab Kings something different to process. When Kishan named him at the toss in place of Unadkat, it suggested SRH had identified a need for change.
Maybe they wanted extra pace freshness. Maybe they wanted a bowler PBKS had not sized up. Maybe they felt the surface needed a different seam angle. Whatever the exact reason, the moment Unadkat still entered the game, the call began to look like the worst of both worlds.
SRH did not fully trust the new option. And by bringing back the old one, they also exposed that they were no longer fully convinced by that route either.
The damage showed up quickly in Unadkat’s spell
This is where the story stopped being about toss-time intrigue and started biting SRH on the scoreboard. Punjab got home with six wickets in hand after SRH had posted 219 for 6, and Unadkat finished with 3 overs for 40 runs. In a chase of that size, those are not harmless overs. Those are momentum overs. Those are overs that either plant doubt in the batting side or let them breathe easy. Punjab breathed easy.
That is what made the spell costly. When you are defending 219, the first job of your bowlers is not merely to avoid disaster. It is to make the target feel alive. To make the batting side wonder. To create one moment of hesitation. SRH never really managed that, and Unadkat’s outing was part of the reason.
Once PBKS got away strongly, the chase stopped feeling like a mountain and started looking like a race they had already paced correctly.
What SRH could have got from Hinge
This does not mean Praful Hinge would definitely have bowled better. That would be lazy hindsight. Debutants come with risk. They come with nerves. They come with no guarantee at all.
But SRH could have got three things from him that they did not get from the route they eventually took.
First, they could have got unfamiliarity. Punjab knew the broad Jaydev Unadkat package: the left-arm angle, the pace band, the changes of pace, the method. Hinge would at least have arrived with some fog around him. In T20 cricket, that fog matters. Even one unread over can change the tone of a defence.
Second, they could have got tactical honesty. If the decision was to move away from Unadkat for this game, then backing Hinge would have shown conviction. Instead, SRH signalled one thing and did another. That kind of middle-ground thinking often leaves a side looking as if it is trying to protect itself from both failure and responsibility.
Third, they could have got a proper gamble. And on a day like this, a gamble may have been more valuable than a fallback option. High-scoring games punish half-choices. They reward full commitment.
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This is why the late-call angle matters
The easiest way to tell this story is to laugh at the confusion. But the deeper issue for SRH is not embarrassment. It is indecision.
Kishan’s line at the toss made it sound like SRH had made a bold late switch. Praful Hinge was the call. Jaydev Unadkat was not. But the second innings revealed something else. When the game tightened, SRH still reached for Unadkat. And once that fallback option went for 40 in 18 balls, the whole sequence started to look like a decision that had lost its nerve before the match had even settled.
That is what the change cost. Not just runs. Not just overs. It cost SRH clarity.
They did not get the upside of fully trusting the debutant. They did not get the comfort of experience either. They got stuck between the two, and in a chase that moved fast and hit hard, that gap became Punjab’s entry point. SRH’s last-minute call did not just look messy. It ended up hurting them where T20 games are often decided, in those early overs when certainty matters most.
