Sunrisers Hyderabad’s (SRH) emphatic six-wicket win against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Monday (May 19) did two things: it showed the world that when the SRH batting unit came together, they were still formidable, and it knocked LSG out of the running for a playoff spot. With only a point separating the two sides and two games in hand each, SRH could even earn a mid-table finish, after having spent a long time languishing near the bottom of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2025) points table.
Throughout the tournament, coach Daniel Vettori has maintained that the Sunrisers’ all-guns-blazing approach to batting was not unidimensional and could be tempered if the conditions demanded it. However, in the first half of the tournament, the Sunrisers’ batting could not click as a whole. But a loss of form, more than bad tactics, saw them pushed back. Against LSG, they hunted down a target of 206 despite missing Travis Head due to a bout of Covid-19, and with Abhishek Sharma’s 59 being the only half-century. Abhishek set the tone early, taking charge in Head’s absence in a 20-ball blitz.
Travis Head set to return
Vettori indicated that Head’s recovery was on track, and he was likely to be fit for their next away match, against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on May 23.
“He’s doing well. We’ve got a few days off before our game in Bengaluru, so it’s all tracking that he’ll be fine to play that game,” Vettori revealed.
The last time Sunrisers played in Bengaluru, they piled up an IPL record 287/3, with Head hitting 102 off 41, so his return will boost the batting unit that seems to be finding its feet.
How the SRH batters have fared
Curiously enough, none of SRH’s top four have had individually poor seasons. However, none of them have had outstanding seasons either.
SRH batters’ stats in IPL 2025 (till May 19)
| Name | Matches | Runs | Average | Strike Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abhishek Sharma | 12 | 373 | 33.91 | 192.27 |
| Heinrich Klaasen | 12 | 358 | 35.80 | 155.65 |
| Travis Head | 11 | 281 | 28.10 | 156.11 |
| Ishan Kishan | 12 | 231 | 25.67 | 140.85 |
A couple of the batters are at the upper end and a couple lower down, but they are all in the middling band. For a batting-led team like the Sunrisers, that has led to poor results. But the fact that none of their main batters have actually had a poor season is an encouraging sign for the rest of this auction cycle.
“To see the team get back together three days ago… and then to be able to pull off what’s a really difficult chase, I thought was a fantastic effort,” Vettori said.
“Unfortunately for us, it has been a tough season. These last few games have been about projecting forward to next year. And to see some guys grab the opportunity and deliver has been fantastic,” he added.
‘Teams bowled exceptionally well to us,’ says Vettori
Vettori also said that the other sides had come better prepared to face the Sunrisers in IPL 2025. Given the way their batting took the tournament by storm last year, that was perhaps a natural consequence.
“I think teams bowled exceptionally well to us at the start,” Vettori said. “A lot of planning went into bowling to those two [Abhishek and Head], and there’s a few other things that go along with it. I wouldn’t want a style change, but you want to adapt when you’re not winning. That’s probably the learning for us this year.”
He said, “We also understand that teams are going to come pretty hard at us. You look all around the IPL, and it’s probably the style that most teams are playing. Everyone does it a different way, but I think the fact that we have Abhishek and Travis normally at the top of the order means we want them to go out there and play aggressively. The rest of the team has a role to adapt to whatever the conditions present themselves as well as the game situation.”
The Sunrisers cannot qualify for this year’s playoffs, but they could still go out on a high if their batting comes together like it did against LSG.