Former Indian opener Abhinav Mukund has questioned Sunrisers Hyderabad’s bowling strength and the franchise for their IPL 2026 mini auction strategies ahead of the season. Mukund highlighted that the Orange Army had a decent purse before the auction but they didn’t utilise it properly.
The former Tamil Nadu batter questioned SRH for spending a huge amount of INR 13 crores on England all-rounder Liam Livingstone despite the presence of batters like Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, and Heinrich Klaasen.
With Pat Cummins all set to miss the initial matches of the upcoming season, SRH’s bowling does look weak.
Mukund said on ESPN Cricinfo, “If their batting is a 10, their bowling is a 1, with a very big drop off. Their batting will hurt teams, and it’s the strongest in the competition. Just that makes them dangerous on a flat Hyderabad track. But the drop-off is too much in the bowling. They have so many who’ve not even played in the IPL. You came with a lot of money to the auction, and you ended up spending it on Liam Livingstone when you already have Klaasen, Head, and Abhishek Sharma.”
“They have a very inexperienced bowling lineup with guys who aren’t making their own first-class sides. Many are picked based on just scouting from the trials. I am surprised at how they have constructed their team. In the years they’ve done well, they’ve had Bhuvneshwar Kumar or Natarajan doing really well for them. But now it looks like Harshal Patel and Jaydev Unadkat have to front-load this attack.”
On the other hand, former South African captain Faf du Plessis reckons SRH’s strategy of outbatting the opposition backfired as they could not deliver the goods in the previous season.
“It’s happened only one season where they shot the lights out with the bat. Last year wasn’t exactly the same in terms of batting returns. They tried the same template of outbatting opponents, but the wickets weren’t as flat, and they didn’t do well as a batting department. I would say that’s a lot of eggs in one basket,” said Faf du Plessis (via the aforementioned source).
The former RCB captain questioned the form of Abhishek Sharma, Heinrich Klaasen, and Travis Head ahead of the upcoming season.
“In that, Abhishek is not in great form. Heinrich Klaasen has had a quiet year, and Travis Head has had a quiet World Cup. Liam Livingstone hasn’t done well in the IPL and isn’t even part of the England side. There is a chance this’ll come right, but you are asking a lot.”
The IPL 2026 season will begin with reigning champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru taking on Sunrisers Hyderabad at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Ahmedabad, on March 28.
