Hyderabad: 2016 IPL champions Sunrisers Hyderabad have made a disastrous start to IPL 2023 having lost their both matches so far, and would look to turn things around at home against high-flying Punjab Kings on Sunday. For a team that finished at the eighth spot in the last two editions, SRH would have hoped for a better start to the season but they ended up suffering two crushing defeats at the hands of Rajasthan Royals and Lucknow Super Giants respectively.
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A poor show with the bat despite some exciting players in the line-up is the prime reason behind their failure. Sunrisers’ struggles to build partnership saw them score 131 and 121 in their two matches so far.
Losing wickets in a heap has proved to be their bane as they failed to get any momentum. If SRH was 30 for 2 in the powerplay in the first game, they managed 43 for one against LSG, only to fritter it away, slipping to 55 for 4 in nine overs.
The return of new skipper Aiden Markram too didn’t change their fate as he made a duck. The ability to play spin was behind the rise of Harry Brook but he got out to spinners in both matches.
In the top-order, SRH tried wicketkeeper Anmolpreet Singh as an opener instead of Abhishek Sharma in their last match and he looked promising, but Mayank Agarwal and Rahul Tripathi have been inconsistent.
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