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The Sunrisers Hyderabad's defeat against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) by five wickets has raised concern over Hyderabad's batting unit. Former SRH coach Tom Moody said that picking up right-handed batters in auction has left Hyderabad with a big disadvantage.
"The thing that screams out to me is that they left the auction table knowing they had a team full of right-handers," Moody said, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo. On Friday, SRH's batting lineup crumbled in front of LSG's excellent bowling unit at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium. Batting first, Hyderabad was able to put 127 runs on the board, which Lucknow's batters chased down in 16 overs with ease. SRH middle-order did not click and wickets went down in quick intervals. West Indian player Nicholas Pooran who had played for SRH last season, played an unbeaten knock of 11 in just six balls in the previous match against his former team. SRH let Pooran go in the IPL auction for more expensive right-handed batters. "They released a left-hander in Nicholas Pooran who hit the winning run [for Lucknow on Friday] and they brought someone who was 30% more expensive, who is a right-hander [Harry Brook]...similar sort of impact player," Former Australian Cricketer said. "They left out Abhishek Sharma, a left-hander, so there's a lot of things to unpack. When they're going to play on surfaces like that ... when there is that tendency where you can be exposed by being very one dimensional on slow turning tracks, you are sitting ducks," Moody added. Considering the performance of Lucknow's left-arm bowler Krunal Pandya and leg spinners Ravi Bishnoi and Amit Mishra, Hyderabad had only picked one Left handed batter Washington Sundar into their side, which showed Hyderabad batting vulnerable. Moody also said that Lucknow had a home advantage and Hyderabad should have anticipated the surface, he added, ""If the soil's there, and you're not trucking it in the day before the game, you play to your advantage.... it is your home venue," Moody added. "They would've known that Wood was potentially a little unwell 24-48 hours ago, and that would've confirmed which surface [they would've played on]. And I'm sure they would've had a red and a black soil [pitch] prepared, and was an easy decision. Yeah, it is absolutely fine," the former SRH coach concluded (ANI).
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