Despite possessing one of the most lethal batting line ups for a few years now — SRH somehow haven’t been that good a bowling unit on repeat. The team has the batters who make the best use of powerplays — having scored close to/or 100, thrice in the PPs, in the last two editions (125/0 vs DC being the highest). But bowling is an Achilles Heel.
What are SRH up to?
Yes, they also possess three of the top 5 highest scores in IPL, but what about the declining bowling resources? It must be admitted, that the bowling downhill started 2023 or 2024 — where despite having the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Pat Cummins, barring a few individual performances, their defense was never really adequate.
By 2025, Hyderabad management got rid of Bhuvi, which raised the ‘why’ question. T Natarajan was bid adieu, and among spinners, Hasaranga was removed. Harshal Patel was brought in, so was Simarjeet Singh, Eshan Malinga, and not forget Shami. But they could not get well. Come 2026, the mistakes only grew on their part.
Release bowler’s list better than current list
Wiaan Mulder, Shami, Rahul Chahar, and even Adam Zampa were let go, leaving them with — Pat Cummins, Brydon Carse, Zeeshan Ansari, Unadkat, Malinga, Sakib Hussain, Onkar Tarmale, Amit Kumar, Praful Hinge and Shivam Mavi. Owing to an injury, skipper Cummins hasn’t played a single match this year, and one doesn’t know for sure, when he will.
That leaves their bowling prowess at only a 50%, in loose terms. Perhaps that is why Heinrich Klaasen had to say this, “We’ve missed out on about 40 runs over three games. There is still a lot of work to do for our batters. We need to get to that 220-230 mark and give our bowlers a chance of defending,” while speaking on JioStar Press Room.
It is not that Sunrisers haven’t done well with the ball, or are not capable of; the problem lies in their overall setup, where perhaps the focus is not that much on bowling. One can even go on to debate, if they are the worst bowling side of IPL 2026, due to multiple factors.
| Team | Span | Lost |
|---|---|---|
| SRH | 2023-2026 | 15 |
| CSK | 2023-2026 | 13 |
| KKR | 2023-2026 | 12 |
| LSG | 2023-2026 | 12 |
| PBKS | 2023-2026 | 12 |
| RCB | 2023-2026 | 12 |
| GT | 2023-2026 | 9 |
| MI | 2023-2026 | 9 |
| RR | 2023-2026 | 8 |
| DC | 2023-2026 | 6 |
One of them is, since 2023, they have just been the worst defending side, where notwithstanding the score, they can’t seem to contain the opposition. They have lost the most matches while trying to defend — 15. This year, in the very first encounter, they could not save 201 runs against RCB, who crossed the finish line in only the 16th over. None of the bowlers had economy rates under 9.
Inadequate bowling resources
Coming back to the stat, GT, MI, DC and RR were the best-equipped teams, to defend totals of all sorts. What is also perplexing is, after SRH scored the highest ever total in IPL history vs RCB — they still could only manage to win by 24 runs only. That doesn’t really do justice to a team, who has the batting of unbelievable proportions.
Lastly, a closer look at all the available bowlers for SRH presents the correct picture. Unadkat this year has an economy of 10.16. Malinga is leaking runs at 9.87/over, Zeeshan Ansari has not been used even once, along with Sakib Hussain, Tarmale, Amit Kumar and Hinge. And as for Mavi, the last time he bowled in IPL, was way back in 2022. They look vulnerable to say the least.
