- Matches Played: 8
- Wins: 2 | Losses: 6
- Points: 4 | Current Rank: 9th
- Net Run Rate: -1.361
- Matches Played: 8
- Wins: 5 | Losses: 3
- Points: 10 | Rank: 2nd on the table
- Net Run Rate: +0.305
🔶 The Bright: What’s Working for SRH
🔸 1. Aniket Verma — The Finisher We Needed
8 matches | 171 runs | Avg: 28.50 | SR: 172.72
- Goes hard from ball one — fearless intent.
- Brilliant against spin — rotates strike and finds boundaries.
- Designated finisher for SRH with a natural attacking game.
🔥 Aniket’s maturity and aggressive mindset make him one of SRH’s most exciting assets this season.
🔸 2. Heinrich Klaasen — The Calm in the Chaos
8 matches | 281 runs | Avg: 40.14 | SR: 159.65
- Ice-cool composure under pressure.
- Read game situations brilliantly — often came in to rescue collapsing innings.
- May not match his 2023 fireworks, but he’s still SRH’s spine with the bat.
💪 When the chips were down, Klaasen stood tall. Not just a power-hitter — a savior.
🔸 3. Zeeshan Ansari — The Underrated Hero
6 matches | 5 wickets | Avg: 42.40 | Econ: 9.70
- Sole frontline spinner in multiple matches.
- Fielding lapses robbed him of 3–4 more wickets.
- Best economy rate among all SRH bowlers this season.
🌪️ Don’t let the stats fool you — Zeeshan has delivered control and courage beyond expectations for a newcomer.
🌥️ The Blurred: Where Things Look Unsettled
🟠 1. Travishek — The Opening Promise Still Pending
Travis Head: 8 matches | 242 runs | Avg: 30.25 | SR: 163.51
Abhishek Sharma: 8 matches | 240 runs | Avg: 30.00 | SR: 183.20
- Despite the numbers, they haven’t fired together in a single game.
- One-off explosive innings have masked the lack of consistency.
- Their early wickets have put SRH on the backfoot repeatedly.
- We know the quality is there — just waiting for it to sync.
⚠️ When your openers aren’t clicking consistently, even the best middle order feels the heat.
🟠 2. Ishan & Nitish — In Need of Confidence and Clarity
Ishan Kishan: 8 matches | 139 runs | Avg: 23.16 | SR: 163.52
Nitish Kumar Reddy: 8 matches | 133 runs | Avg: 19.00 | SR: 109.91
- Ishan started off big, but lost rhythm after the first game.
- Nitish showed glimpses of class in the opener but hasn’t settled into a defined role.
- Neither has managed to anchor innings or step up during collapses.
- Talent is visible — clarity and confidence are the missing ingredients.
🧩 Right players, wrong rhythm. Time and role clarity can turn this around.
🟠 3. Mohammed Shami — Still Finding the Groove
- Hasn’t looked like his vintage self — indecisive between attacking and defending.
- Conceded runs without picking up key wickets.
- However, showed signs of improvement in his most recent outing.
- A short break might help him reset and return stronger.
🔄 Form is temporary, class is permanent. One spark is all Shami needs to flip the switch.
🟡 They’re not out of form — just out of sync. This phase can be fixed.
🔥 The Brutal: Where It’s Going Wrong
❌ 1. Ishan’s Walk-Off vs MI — A Moment That Shouldn’t Have Happened
📅 April 23, 2025 – No appeal from the keeper. A muted one from the bowler. The umpire was already reaching to signal wide.
🔍 Snicko showed nothing — no spike, no edge. Yet, Ishan walked.
Just because Snicko didn’t pick anything up doesn’t mean he didn’t edge it — tech can be off sometimes.
Personally, I don’t doubt his commitment. He’s always been a gutsy player, fully invested.
But at this stage of the tournament, when form is shaky and confidence is low, you simply can’t afford to gift your wicket when luck is finally in your favor.
But that moment told us something deeper: he’s under pressure, mentally clouded, and not himself.
🧠 This isn’t about skill — this is about the mind.
🛑 He needs a break — even if it means sitting out the rest of the season.
💪 He’s a champion. When he’s in the right space, he can be a game-changer for us.
❌ 2. The Think Tank — Strategy Slippage
When a player is out of form, we blame the player. When almost the entire team (barring a couple) looks out of sync, the spotlight has to shift to the think tank.
🧠 Our much-celebrated ultra-aggressive approach worked wonders in 2024. But cricket evolves — and teams came prepared this year. We… didn’t. No Plan B. No tactical depth.
This isn’t about doubting the approach — let Abhishek and Head continue playing fearlessly. But our #3 & #4 must also play according to the match situation. We have in-form finishers who can do the late-innings fireworks.
🎯 Bowling? Often clueless. Struggling to decide whether to attack or contain.
Pace unit is slowly settling into a rhythm (with minimal guidance). Spin strategy? A disaster. Robbed of basics, let alone game plans.
Impact subs? Desperate or thoughtless, more often than not.
🌀 Nitish Kumar Reddy — a genuine all-rounder — hasn't bowled a single over this season. He showed excellent composure bowling on alien Australian surfaces not long ago. Unless he's unfit to bowl, there's no logic behind not using his skills. Another strategic miss.
⚠️ We don’t even have an off-spinner in the squad, and couldn’t fix it using the replacement player opportunity when Zampa got injured. And to make it worse — we sub Travis Head off every single match, making him unavailable for the bowling innings. When there's a dearth of spin options, not using available ones screams of tactical mismanagement.
💡 We’ve played with 7 batters, 4 bowlers, and then brought in an all-rounder as an impact sub to provide batting depth. And what did we do? Bowl him for just 1 over. What are we thinking? We can’t play with just 4 bowlers — even with an impact sub. We end up weakening our bowling unit and leaving the team exposed.
🔥 We once brought in a spinner midway through the bowling innings... only to bowl him for just 1 over. What are we even thinking? If you make a decision, back it. But that’s not happening here.
📈 Opposition teams seem to read our home pitches better than we do. Where is the groundwork, the match awareness? Why are we failing to assess the pitch conditions accurately? This isn’t just about the players; it’s about how the think tank is failing to adapt.
❗ It’s OUR team — and right now, OUR think tank looks totally out of ideas.
🔥 Feels like we built this squad expecting our batters to score 300 every game. Reality hit hard — and now, it’s about how we respond.
🔥 Expectations for the Rest of the Season
Indications are obvious that we can't make the playoffs considering our current form, the clarity with which we are playing, and how oppositions are at least a step ahead of us, along with the form of other teams.
We all love miracles, and I would love to see us make the playoffs from here (Plan A), but if we can’t, we should target winning 4 matches out of the remaining 8 (Plan B).
In the worst case, winning our next match against CSK would practically define whether we end up 9th or 10th at the end of the season (Plan C).
💡 Suggestions for the Rest of the Season
- 1. Scratch All Thoughts About Scoring 300: By being overly obsessed with scoring 300, sometimes we're struggling to even reach half of it! We have the talent and capacity to achieve that one day, but we can’t start every match thinking about it. The day we line up in the right mindset, it will happen naturally without overthinking it. And even if it doesn’t, remember, winning matches is far more important than scoring 300.
- 2. Respect the Basics of Cricket: We need to return to the fundamental principles of the game — read pitches better, plan match-ups, and have compact bowling strategies. It’s time to set reasonable targets with the bat and bowl according to the opposition's strengths.
- 3. Stick to 6 Batsmen + 5 Bowlers: Regardless of whether we're batting or bowling first, let's start with 6 batsmen and 5 bowlers. This gives us flexibility to efficiently use the impact player rule and ensure we cover all bases.
- 4. Bowling Strategy: Use Nitish in Powerplay: If Nitish is fit to bowl, let him bowl alongside Shami in the powerplay. If not, we need to get one over from each of Cummins, Abhishek, Eshan, and Harshal, with Shami bowling the remaining 2 overs.
🎯 Eshan and Harshal should be our core death bowlers, while Cummins should be flexible, bowling across the powerplay, middle overs, and death overs, depending on match conditions. - 5. Include Chahar in the Bowling XI: It’s time to include Chahar in the bowling XI. Additionally, we should get a couple of overs from Abhishek and Head to provide timely support to Chahar and Zeeshan.
- 6. Move Nitish to #3: If we're not replacing Ishan with a right-hander, move Nitish to #3. This gives us the opportunity to use basic cricketing tactics like the left-right combination, ensuring better balance and flexibility in the batting order.
🌅 Together, they represent the firepower, resilience, and raw talent SRH still carries. The sun is just behind the clouds.
