Sunrisers Hyderabad, after their impressive debut in 2013 when they reached the playoff stages, have been a major disappointment ever since. They have exited from the group stages during the last two editions of the competition. Now with David Warner, Ashish Nehra and Yuvraj Singh in their team, one can expect Sunrisers to shine in IPL 2016.
The Sunrisers did their homework well before they headed to the IPL 2016 player auction and picked some big names, including some good domestic players as well. However, Yuvraj and Nehra were their biggest signing for IPL 2016. The team management hopes that the duo will prove their decision right.
Besides the two, Sunrisers will also depend on other stars like David Warner, Eoin Morgan and Trent Boult, who have it in them to win matches on their own.
Here is a look at Sunrisers' complete squad
Batsmen:On the batting front, Sunrisers look mighty talented with David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan at the top. They are regular openers, but one could see KL Rahul opening the innings alongside Shikhar, and Warner coming one down. Warner and Shikhar performed well last season, scoring runs with a good strike rate. Besides Warner and Shikhar, Kane Williamson and Morgan are the other two stars in their line-up, and the Englishman can especially play a significant role with the willow in the middle order. Though Yuvraj is their new signing, Sunrisers might miss out on his services for the first few matches as the left-hander is injured.
Bowlers: Ashish Nehra, who has been impressive in T20I for India, will spearhead the bowling attack, which is going to be well supported by New Zealand pacer Trent Boult. Nehra, with his swing, and Boult, with his pace, could be a huge threat to batsmen in the opposition team. Along with the duo, Bhuvneshwar Kumar is another brilliant swing bowler, who can stifle the batsmen, and take wickets. They have quality spinners as well in the form of Karn Sharma, who will play the leading role of a spinner in the team. Parvez Rasool is their other key spinner, keen to make an impression.
All-rounders:Australia's Moises Henriques was an integral part of Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2015, with both the bat and the ball. He can hit the ball long, and also bowl during the middle overs of the game and take crucial wickets. Deepak Hooda can also whack some mighty sixes, and bowl a few overs of spin when required. Ashish Reddy is another all-rounder the Sunrisers need to take advantage of.
Wicket-keepers: Naman Ojha is a safe keeper behind the stumps, with good reflexes. Besides his keeping, his batting is brilliant as well. He can play as per the situation, and loves to score quick runs, which is the need in the shortest format. However, he is going to battle it out against Aditya Tare for the starting role behind the stumps. Tare might get the nod as the batsman has been scoring prolific runs in domestic cricket of late.
Sunrisers Hyderabad might not have a number of superstars in their team, but they have a squad with all their bases covered. It would not be wrong to say that the Sunrisers are the dark horse of IPL 2016.
Sunrisers Hyderabad complete squad
David Warner (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Moises Henriques, Eoin Morgan, Kane Williamson, KL Rahul, Naman Ojha, Parvez Rasool, Trent Boult, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashish Reddy, Bipul Sharma, Karn Sharma, Ricky Bhui, Siddharth Kaul, Yuvraj Singh, Ashish Nehra, Deepak Hooda, Mustafizur Rahman, Aditya Tare, Barinder Singh Sran, Ben Cutting, Vijay Shankar, Abhimanyu Mithun, T Suman.