The Sunrisers Hyderabad had a topsy-turvy season in IPL 2022. They did have a 5-match winning streak in the middle of the tournament, but apart from that, they could only win one other game and ended at the 8th position in the 10-team points table.
As a result, they released captain Kane Williamson from the squad along with a wholesale of players, including Nicholas Pooran, and will enter the IPL 2023 mini-auction with the biggest purse of all teams, INR 42.25 crore.
Players released by SRH: Kane Williamson, Nicholas Pooran, Romario Shepherd, Sean Abbott, Priyam Garg, Shreyas Gopal, Jagadeesha Suchith, Ravikumar Samarth, Saurabh Dubey, Shashank Singh, Sushant Mishra, Vishnu Vinod
SRH have some holes to fill, especially in the batting department, and will want to strengthen their squad.
Here are 3 players SRH might target in the IPL 2023 mini-auction:
Ben Stokes/Sam Curran/Cameron Green
We are clubbing these three in one category: overseas seam-bowling all-rounder. Expect SRH to bid aggressively for at least one, maybe even two given they have the big purse, of these three marquee all-rounders, all of whom are expected to fetch big amounts in the IPL 2023 mini-auction.
Stokes and Curran played crucial roles for England at the T20 World Cup 2022 while Green is a prodigious all-rounder who was part of Australia’s T20 WC squad.
After releasing the likes of Romario Shepherd, Sean Abbott, and Jagadeesha Suchith, SRH will want a proper all-rounder to balance the side; last season they had to use Markram as an all-rounder and had a long tail with even Marcon Jansen batting at number 7.
Ben Stokes even is a captaincy option for SRH.
Mayank Agarwal
Another captaincy option for SRH will be Mayank Agarwal, who has been released by PBKS. Importantly, Agarwal brings the aggressive option as an opener, something they lacked with Kane Williamson at the top last season.
Agarwal, with his immense experience, could complement Abhishek Sharma very well.
Agarwal had one bad season with the bat, and Punjab made the call to release him. But, anyway, it could be SRH’s gain, for there is plenty of upside for SRH to buy Mayank Agarwal at the IPL 2023 auction.
Kane Williamson
Continuity of captain in the IPL is important and has brought titles to the likes of CSK, MI, and KKR. After sacking David Warner mid-season as the captain in 2021 and giving the reins to Williamson, and then retaining the Kiwi for 14 crore at the price of letting Rashid Khan go, SRH now have released Williamson after an average season with the bat and the results not going their way.
Also, it feels as if the 14 crore price tag was crucial in SRH’s decision to release Williamson. So, they could well be contemplating buying Williamson back for a much cheaper price, because, let’s be honest, there is no way Williamson is going for even mover 10 crore, let alone 14 crore in the auction, because of the decline in his T20 batting.
Nonetheless, Williamson remains one of the best captains in the world, having led New Zealand to ICC knockouts regularly, and can play the anchor role very well. If SRH can have aggressive batters around Williamson, their batting will become a potent force.
