The key factors that contributed to this inspirational turnaround…Inclusion of Australian firepower
Not going for an overall revamp, SRH, who retained the core team, broke the bank to acquire the services of Australia captain Cummins for Rs 20.5 crore and opener Travis Head for Rs 6.80 in the auction. Their inclusion breathed a new lease of life into the team.
Head-Abhishek combination at top
The aggressive brand of cricket at the top was not new in world cricket. However, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma took powerplay batting to a new level. They helped SRH script several records. While Abhishek Sharma hit the most sixes in the season, SRH ended with the most maximums. More often than not, the duo sealed the fate of games with their attacking game. Riding on the duo’s form, SRH broke the record for the highest total twice. The duo added 691 runs together, including an unbeaten 167-run opening stand against Lucknow Super Giants.
Cummins’s captaincy
There were doubts over how Cummins would lead in the shortest format. However, he not only slipped into the role to perfection but also got the best out of the players. The way he communicated with domestic players, with whom he was working for the first time, was commendable. Cummins made bold moves, adapting the horses-for-courses formula, even if that meant benching Markram, Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Tripathi and Glenn Phillips.
He formed a formidable partnership with head coach Daniel Vettori and the duo’s experience of working together at the Australian national team setup produced results. Vettori was clear in his vision and time and again Head-Abhishek credited the captain-coach duo for their success
Making their home a fortress
Ahead of the first match in Hyderabad, captain Cummins mentioned that they wanted to make their ground a fortress, and he stuck to his words. SRH won five of their home matches, losing only one, and the match against Gujarat Titans was washed out. Making most of the home conditions helped them get into the playoffs.
The bowling unit consisting of T Natarajan (19 wickets), Cummins (18), and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (11) deserves a mention as they did their job under the radar with the batters hogging the limelight. SRH captured the imagination of the world in T20s with their high-risk high-reward strategy. With the T20 World Cup almost upon us, it would be interesting to see how many teams adapt to this trend.
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