Pleased with SRH squad, players will get better with exposure: Tom Moody

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) finished eighth in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season and succumbed to another loss in their final game of the season against Punjab Kings (PBKS). 

SRH won just six games out of 14 and finished in the eighth spot, just like they did last season. However, head coach Tom Moody does not feel the need to panic and insists there were some positives. He reckons the players are only going to get better and better as they get more exposure.

“Overall, we are pretty pleased with our squad. We think we've got an exciting, talented squad which has got diversity, relatively young as well,” Moody said in the post-match press conference.

“So, there's a lot of upsides. The players are going to get better the more they got exposed. We need to sit back and reflect on our season and look at the balance of our squad before I'm going to shoot off on the hip and make some calls on what we need and what we don't.”

Moody was also pleased with the performances of players like Umran Malik, and Aiden Markram among others. 

“There are a number of things we can look at moving forward. It's not an ideal way to finish tonight. There are a couple of individual performances we can take positives out of - The young Abhishek Sharma and Umran Malik are obviously two standout young Indian players who have had exceptional seasons,” the former Australia all-rounder said.

“The likes of Rahul Tripathi at three, Aiden Markram has also had a consistent season. Bhuvi [Bhuvneshwar Kumar] again showed his quality with the new ball and his ability to finish the games with the ball. We can take a lot going forward into 2023.”

Abdul Samad was one of the players retained players but played just a couple of games for the team. However, Moody has not completely shut the doors on the youngster.

“Abdul was unlucky to be left off after a couple of games. But his replacement Shashank Singh came into the side and he actually played five games without batting and those five games we won in a row,” Moody said.

“So, that delayed his opportunity to express himself or show what he is capable of doing in that role. The season had had well and truly advanced before he started to show us what he is capable of doing. 

The very first game, he [Shashank] batted exceptionally well and got some quick runs down at the finishing role. Abdul was pretty close to playing today. There's no doubt whether he is a player of value.

“Very unlucky to miss out. As we know with the IPL, the international players or Indian players, it's very hard to provide opportunities to every single member in your squad. Something we try to do is give some consistency with selection.”