Could change in captaincy bring change in luck for Chennai?

Sunrisers Hyderabad's bowling unit, barring Umran Malik, had a rare off day against Gujarat Titans and would be eager to return back to their best when they take on Chennai Super Kings in Pune on Sunday (May 1). The Men in Yellow have struggled to get going in the Indian Premier League 2022 and Ravindra Jadeja has now handed over the captaincy to MS Dhoni.

Considering the number of captaincy changes over the years in the IPL, it's not surprising that captaincy got the better of Jadeja. The man with the Midas touch will have SOME task on his hands as CSK are now at a stage where they will have to win all their remaining six encounters to even stand a chance to qualify for the playoffs. However, they will be up against Jammu and Kashmir’s tearaway paceman who has rightly become the talk of the town.

The Umran Malik factor

It’s almost impossible to take your eyes off the screen once Malik comes into the attack. The 22-year-old has been on fire in the ongoing tournament, having picked up 15 wickets in eight innings at a strike rate of 12 and an ever-improving economy of 7.96. It’s not just the number of wickets he has taken, Malik has constantly troubled most of the batters with his raw pace. He has been so impactful that people are now almost certain that he is not too far away from making his international debut. 

The credit should also go to Kane Williamson and the SRH team management who have used him perfectly. Marco Jansen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and T Natarajan have mostly been used in the powerplay and death overs, allowing Malik to wreak havoc in the middle overs. 10 of his 15 wickets have come in the middle phase and he is now starting to bowl with a lot more control. 

He had an economy of 10.4 in the first four games but has operated at 5.8 in the last four encounters. In the game against Gujarat, Malik claimed 5/25, while the other SRH bowlers couldn’t pick a single wicket in the remaining 16 overs. Chennai have some batters in their line-up who struggle against sheer pace and Malik could once again have an eventful outing.

Willamson’s conservative approach could hurt SRH

Hyderabad have a scoring rate of just 6.8 in the first six overs and it’s largely because of their skipper Williamson. The opener has the worst strike rate in the powerplay amongst all batters who have faced at least 100 deliveries in this phase, and even his overall strike rate is just 93.08.

The likes of Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Washington Sundar and Shashank Singh have all looked fluent, while the bowlers have also been very impressive. However, Williamson eating so many deliveries during the field restrictions could hurt SRH in the long run. 

Only if Gaikwad, Jadeja were in form...

It’s not just Williamson, Jadeja too hasn't done much and the burden must have finally got to him. "MS Dhoni has accepted to lead CSK in the larger interest and to allow Jadeja to focus on his game," the CSK statement read. The left-hander has 112 runs in eight innings at a strike rate of 121.73 and it was his knock (21* off 16) against Punjab Kings that cost Chennai the game. Jadeja had an average of 57.38 and a strike rate of 157.7 in the last two seasons but has looked completely out of touch in the ongoing edition. He is yet to register a 30-plus score this season, but will hopefully play with a lot of freedom in the remaining games. 

Then, there is Ruturaj Gaikwad. The right-handed opener averages 17.4 in IPL 2022 and that’s mostly because of his 73 against Gujarat. In the remaining seven innings, Gaikwad has only managed 65 runs. These two were phenomenal in IPL 2021 and helped Chennai win their fourth title but things haven’t gone as planned this year and it reflects clearly on the points table. Meanwhile, Ambati Rayudu has been solid in the last three innings but Robin Uthappa and Shivam Dube have tapered off after impressing in the first five matches. 

Probable XIs

Sunrisers Hyderabad - Abhishek Sharma, Kane Williamson (c), Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Shashank Singh, Washington Sundar, Marco Jansen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik, T Natarajan.

Chennai Super Kings - Ruturaj Gaikwad, Robin Uthappa, Ambati Rayudu, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Mitchell Santner, Dwayne Bravo, Dwaine Pretorius, Mukesh Choudhary, Maheesh Theekshana.

(All stats till April 29, 2022)