From winning the title in 2016 by defeating RCB to calmly sitting at the bottom of the table in 2021 and 2023, SRH has got the taste of cherry only once in 16 years of IPL.
But this year, things are looking different.
With Aiden Markaram winning the SA T20 league by defeating Durbans Super Giants which featured Henrick Klassen who was the second highest run getter in the series, when both met in hyderabad, there were good feelings going into the season with their new World Cup winning captain Pat Cummins.
Here we list 5 reasons that will justify why SRH will play the final of IPL 2024 :-
1)Henrick Klassen form :- Not many clean strikers like Klassen in the middle order is what everyone is saying in the twitter and they are not totally wrong about it.
With such a great start already in the series, Klassen is looking in the form of his life and he is not much talked about as a player, but teams are slowly recognizing if one team has the most dangerous strikers in the middle orders, its the SRH.
His ability to just hit all sort of lengths from one position is simply remarkable and that makes him very hard to bowl. If he carries on his form for the rest of the tournament, SRH surely are going to give a shot at the trophy one more time.
2)Pat Cummins as captain :- Aiden Markaram didn’t do that bad as captain in the last season and he won the SA20 league for Sunrisers Eastern Cape but what better you can ask for if you have a World Cup winning captain who defeated India in India at the biggest stage.
How he cut down India’s run of flow in the final, bowling those slow deliveries to Surya Kumar Yadav, bowling entire 10 overs without a mid off just tells the sharp brain he carries along with bowling economical spells. Also he is not a tailender with the bat and already has hit few half centuries in reasonable time in his IPL career.
Pat Cummins as captain will do huge favors for SRH and he will like to continue his streak of playing finals in India.
3)Form of Abhishek Sharma :- Abhishek Sharma was seen as one good batsman in the uncapped players list, but he has not totally brought himself at IPL level until this season where he is looking a completely different player.
SRH needed that fire start to begin with, a quick 50 -60 runs in the powerplay and then they have Klassen, Markaram in the middle order to take the team to a good total, Abhishek has helped his team this season by providing those fiery start from ball one.
If he can click in even half of the matches with his quick 30-40s, he would be very okay with himself and would have done commendable job for his captain Pat Cummins and his team.
4)The dangerous Travis Head :- Not a good name to remind for Indian fans, the dangerous Travis Head is back at the top of the order, this time for SRH.
SRH started with Marco Jansen but they couldn’t keep Head out for long and he has carried on his World Cup final form in IPL too. No half measures, just simply going berserk from ball one.
If he and Abhishek both gets to swing their bat in first six overs, it becomes very difficult to win the match when SRH comes to field with their master tactician Pat Cummins.
5)Tricky Shahbaz Ahmed :- The former RCB player who has received India call up too, Shahbaz Ahmed showed in the very first game that he is in the right and aggressive spirits to bat lower down the order.
If he can continue hitting his 20-30s lower down the order and bowl some of his left arm orthodox economically, he can be SRH trump card.
With Pat Cummins also there in the lower order, Shahbaz and Pat Cummins can stitch crucial partnership in crunch games for their team and take their team closer to the IPL title.
Apart from this this they have a decent bowling attack comprising of Bhuvi and Pat Cummins in the bowling department doing majority of the work.
Umran Malik can be used as X factor and Jyadev Unadkat gives them the option to play in slow pitches with his variations.
SRH, really have framed a very good team and all the big players are in the form of their life, which give them a real chance at playing the finals of IPL 2024.
If they can continue playing the good cricket, the hyderabad fans and SRH owner Kavya Maran will not need to make some other plans for 26 May.
