It just keeps getting tough for SRH. Season after season the potential of this side have kept declining. Gone are the days when they were some serious contenders every season they played.
Reckon that's a bit of an exaggeration, they've only had one bad season and before that made the playoffs for five straight seasons. I think things started to go way downhill since the Dubai leg last season, with that whole management fallout and mistreatment of Warner. Although it's fair to say that SRH's best days are now behind them with the likes of Warner, Bairstow, Rashid gone. This team now looks mediocre compared to the one before. Big shame given how that large purse was supposed to fix those past auction mistakes for some inconsistent, not necessarily IPL proven players.
Some of the reasons maybe
- Bhuvi's fitness level going down Unavailability of a senior local
- Lack of experience in the middle order
- Inefficient management from the owners
- Lack of a quality local spinner (they have got Sundar, Gopal & Suchith this time)
- Having lot of big names in the coaching staff
Katich leaving the SRH Camp just about a month before the season adds to the misery. If this goes on then I won't be surprised to see this side get revoked from IPL.
Hope Bhuvi replicates his current good form from the recent T20 series into the IPL. Looks likely SRH have to rely heavily on their bowling attack to bail them out of matches.
Point #2 has always been the biggest issue of the team, and they've still gone back to Priyam Garg and Abhishek Sharma for that Indian middle order roles, who fired for one game a few seasons ago. Would've helped a whole lot having a Dinesh Karthik or a Shahrukh Khan.
Rashid is a big loss and it's hard to adequately cover for him. Wonder why Mujeeb wasn't picked up at 1.5C when he went unsold.