The Sunrisers Hyderabad have done a great job in the auctions of the IPL 2022 by bringing in quite a good number of strong players in their squad. Owing to the considerable no of options present in their squad, now they have a mind free of stress because they know that they have multiple options to fill in every spot in their lineup.
As everyone must say the most important slot that a team needs to fill up at the earliest in a T20 match is none but the opening pair. If the openers don’t get going in fine fashion in the early stages of the innings then it might lead to an overall imbalance in the entire batting lineup as the middle order batsmen may not get the adequate platform to build the innings furthermore.
Hence Sunrisers Hyderabad like every other franchise shall be looking forward to setting up a fluent looking opening pair that shall provide them with a decent start in every possible game so that they can finally make their dreams of winning the prestigious IPL trophy for the first time since 2016 when a certain David Warner led them to the title.
Discussed below are 3 of the most probable opening pairs that the Sunrisers shall use in the upcoming IPL season:-
1. Kane Williamson and Rahul Tripathi
The newly drafted Rahul Tripathi in the IPL auction was being called a clever move from the Sunrisers by all the experts and rightly so. The right-hander was in extraordinary touch last season for the Kolkata Knight Riders.
Tripathi had fantastic performances batting at the top of the order for the knights and played a crucial role in carrying them all the way to the IPL final last year. Hence having a versatile player of his kind at the opening spot wouldn’t be a bad idea for the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Meanwhile, Sunrisers who had retained their captain Kane Williamson ahead of the auctions of IPL 2022 would perhaps be looking forward to the kiwi as an automatic choice to open the batting with Tripathi for the franchise.
Kane, who’s been a regular member of the orange army for several past seasons shall definitely be the most suitable option to open the innings just like he’s done in many games in the past for his franchise.
Kane Williamson (IPL stats):-
Matches – 63, Runs – 1885, Average – 40.1, Strike Rate – 131.3
Rahul Tripathi (IPL stats):-
Matches – 62, Runs – 1385, Average – 26.1, Strike Rate – 136.3
2. Kane Williamson and Priyam Garg
Another possible option which Sunrisers Hyderabad could avail is to send a young Priyam Garg to open the batting with Williamson.
22-Year-old Garg came into the spotlight after his performances in the 2020 world cup where he captained the Indian U19 side. Sunrisers have made the youngster a part of their squad right since that year, but couldn’t really provide him with a fixed position or role in the batting lineup.
Maybe this is the right time for the management to think upon the young prodigy’s abilities on a bigger stage and provide him with bigger responsibilities.
Hyderabad supporters may well be hoping that the Kane-Garg duo to fire in this IPL season if they are provided with an opportunity to open the batting together.
Priyam Garg (IPL stats):-
Matches – 19, Runs – 205, Average – 14.6, Strike Rate – 110.8
3. Aiden Markram and Rahul Tripathi
Sunrisers Hyderabad was one of those franchises who didn’t use their full quota of 4 players which was the maximum no of players that were allowed to be retained for each of the ten franchises.
This proves the fact that the franchise wasn’t much confidence in their squad from the past seasons and wanted to rebuild the structure of their team with the new players whom they would draft in during the auctions.
Keeping this thing in mind another conclusion that might be drawn is that Sunrisers might think out of the box and ask Aiden Markram and Rahul Tripathi, two of their newly added players to their squad to open the batting together. Markram who is a white ball specialist had shown glimpses of his talent earlier in the league with the Punjab kings last season where he managed to steer his side to victory on multiple occasions.
His international experience with the proteas might also come in handy to the orange army at times. Thus a well-planned opening duo of this kind is expected to give the Sunrisers a sort of relief from the stress caused by the regular batting woes that have occurred in the past few seasons.
Aiden Markram (2021 IPL Stats):-
Matches – 6, Runs – 146, Average – 29.2, Strike Rate – 122.7
Our Prediction: Although all of the above-mentioned options are viable pairs that Sunrisers Hyderabad could consider as their possible opening partnership, we particularly think that they will go with the Kane Williamson – Rahul Tripathi duo.
Although Kane Williamson is not very comfortable as an opener, he is likely to step up to the responsibility of being the captain of the team. He has not been in his regular practice due to an injury but he will try to get back in full form ahead of IPL 2022. It will also give him a good chance to prepare batting as an opener. Kane Williamson is generally considered to be a very dependable batsman across the formats and he is very likely to play a good role as an opener for SRH as well.
On the other hand, Rahul Tripathi is an experienced opener. Although his former team Kolkata Knight Riders did not use him as a regular opener due to the presence of other choices like Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer, it is almost sure that he will open for SRH. This is solely due to the fact that they do not have an abundance of openers in their squad.
Rahul Tripathi showed character as an opener back in his days at Pune SuperGiants. He was a key played in the Dhoni-led side and it was there that he made a mark in the Indian Premier League.
Also Read:- IPL 2022: Top 3 Possible Opening Partnerships for Royal Challengers Bangalore