Follow UsSunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) set the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 on fire with their breath-taking hitting and head coach Daniel Vettori said they have no plans of changing their approach in the IPL 2025. In Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Heinrich Klaasen, SRH already had a fearsome batting unit, but they became even more dangerous after getting Ishan Kishan and Abhinav Manohar onboard.
"Whatever ground we go to, we have an understanding that the batting team is going to be aggressive. The only thing that can mitigate that is the pitch, but most times, the pitches in IPL are very flat,” said Vettori ahead of the game against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Hyderabad on March 23 (Sunday).
"When you come to these grounds, you know exactly what to expect. You know how the batsmen are going come against you. It's quite…..maybe not fun is the right word, it's a good challenge for a bowling group to try and work their way through that.
"That's what captain Pat Cummins addressed the bowling group the other day. He said the expectation is on the batters to do all the work, score the runs and the bowlers can sort of feed into that. If we get those days to make it all work, it's going go a long way in us winning games. The onus on batting group to score runs and for the bowlers to be able to mitigate that."
SRH were unbelievable in the IPL 2024 but fell short against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the grand finale. This season, SRH are once again being touted as red-hot favourites. "Expectations bring some excitement. Expectations are built around the performances of last year and the quality of the team we've been able to put together at the back end of last season and into the auction.
"As a franchise, we're really excited about the season because we have that foundation from the five players we retained and how well they performed last year, hopefully we have the squad to perform as well this year if not better."
Head and Abhishek, in particular, were brutal as an opening pair. The two left-handers added 691 runs together at an outrageous strike rate of 224.3, while maintaining an average of almost 50. SRH now have Kishan but Vettori confirmed Abhishek and Head will continue to open.
"Don't think we'll be changing the opening combination, Ishan complements them as well as anyone. He has a similar stye of game, left-handed, the ability to take on all types of bowlers. We're very lucky to have him part of the squad to complement those two, then have Nitish and Klaasen and few of our younger batters to be able to come into the squad as well. We look at that as a huge addition to the team."
Vettori also confirmed that Cummins and Nitish are completely fit. "They've come through their training sessions really well. They had injuries around January, it's been an extended period since they played but they've also had time to recover. When they play as much cricket as they do, it's sometimes nice to be able to get the chance to refresh.
"Both of them are eager and excited about the season. That's a great position to have. Sometimes when you come into the IPL, it's the end of a very long season, players can be slightly jaded, but those two are very keen to go."