Sunrisers Hyderabad Introduce a New Type of Carnage Which Is Doing Wonders

When Sunrisers brought Travis Head and Pat Cummins to the auction, it was a given that something was cooking. Pat Cummins, not the best in T20 Cricket, still proved over the last year that he is tactically as good as anyone. Travis Head has also shown he is a player with a lot of power, while the existing squad members in Abhishek Sharma and Heinrich Klaasen, are proven performers in the IPL.

They finished last season and started this one with a loss but were quick to break ground. 277, 287, and 266 were scaled by them, as Sunrisers Hyderabad started something special. Flat pitches and the Impact Rule helping Sunrisers, using their muscle and a lot of courage, came with a completely different approach.

The approach was given when Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma took 125 runs in the first six overs, a record. The duo at the top, in particular, has done significant damage. Neither cares about strike rate, situation, or the score. Instead, both batters come out with only one goal in mind as each competes with each other to see who can hit the ball further.

To add to interest, the top duo do much more than blind slogging. Their boundaries were more about finding ways to get the ball to different pockets of the ground while backing their muscle and bat size to clear the fence. The main strength is the clarity with which the duo is coming out.

In each game, Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head, the talk of the tournament, are looking to kill the match in the first six overs. They have played with the Indian medium pacers and looked at home with pace on the ball. No swing on the surfaces has also helped, but their onslaughts have been far more than help from flat pitch. Instead, it has been clarity in roles, and the license to go for it, backing their strengths.

Behind them, Heinrich Klaasen stands to intimidate opponents even further. His performance has been pretty good as well but the way Abhishek and Head have been going has made people forget about Heinrich Klaasen and his ability to blast spinners out of the ground.

The batting line-up is falling into place well. Nitish Kumar Reddy, Abdul Samad, and Shahbaz Ahmed have also shown that they can be a good foil to the other three. They have another weak bowling attack against them. Deepak Chahar, on his day, could pose a challenge to the opening duo, but he has looked color, and if the Swing abandons him, the Sunrisers will be all over Chahar and the Super Kings in no time. They may have a slight challenge, with Chepauk generally on the slower side.

It has not been all that slow this season, but historically, Chepauk has slowed down. Regardless, the power the openers pack, and their form will keep them confident. They had that one bad game most sides have and will be eager to bounce back. Marcus Stoinis has shown that the Chepauk can be silenced. Pat Cummins loves silencing crowds from his side, though, and he will be waiting to see if his openers can make a statement early on against Deepak Chahar, who can challenge the openers but has also been pretty poor with his swing this season.