Hyderabad: If there is one team in IPL that belies its name, it’s Sunrisers Hyderabad. They have been caught napping. And despite high-decibel alarms, failed to wake up during the tournament. And yes, the suffix Hyderabad surely did not make any sense either as none of the players belonged to the city. Neither did the side rise to the occasion, nor did they showcase any Hyderabadi flavour.
The meager two in the squad — Ashish Reddy and C.V. Milind — were not even considered for a game, worse that the powers-that-be left out quite a few promising players, G. H. Vihari and Akshat Reddy to name a couple, at the auction earlier this year. A peeved Vihari left for England to play minor counties and did well for himself by scoring a half-century on debut before following it with a double century in the next game.
Even during the four matches played at home, the Sunrisers did not field even one Hyderabad player. That led to the role of team mentor VVS Laxman being questioned in local cricket circles. First, he let the Hyderabad players pass by at the auction. Then, the two who made it to the squad, were not given even one chance and consigned to the bench all through, the murmurs began.
Nasty snub to the city and its cricket association through which Laxman climbed up the ranks to play 134 Tests and 86 One-Day Internationals. Many in the HCA feel he was duty-bound to push Hyderabad players into the playing XI. The allegation/ observation is that Laxman simply chose to look after himself in the squad rather than being a mentor to the boys who have looked up to him.
Left-arm pacer Milind must have felt miserable to be perennially on the sidelines as he watched his India U-19 World Cup teammates in other teams be part of on-field action. Allrounder Ashish Reddy was left wondering why he was drafted into the squad at all.
The Sunrisers campaign was summed up aptly in their last match, against the Kolkata Knight Riders on Saturday.
Anirudha Srikkanth, son of the other team mentor, Krishnamachari Srikkanth, provided some comical moments in the only game he got to play. With the bat he contributed just three in five balls. Then, in the field, he made the costliest blunder by dropping eventual match-winner Yusuf Pathan when the batsman was yet to open his account. And the manner in which he went for the catch was evidence that Anirudha was out of sync.
Instead of cupping his palms to align with the line of the ball, he tried to bring them together from either side to end up clapping them as the ball crashed into his chest before falling to the ground.
The Sunrisers show clearly did not deserve any applause.
