Hyderabad’s Performance in Indian T20 League

Hyderabad Team Schedule for Indian T20 league 2023

Squad Analysis of Hyderabad

Before the auctions, the team let go twelve players from the squad that was assembled in the 2022 mega-auctions, including big names like Kane Williamson and Nicholas Pooran. They sat down at the auction table with not only the biggest budget but also with a lot of places to fill. They went all the way to get the services of Harry Brook, who in his first year of international cricket has already shown that he is a once in a generation cricketer. They then smartly spruced up their spin department by adding the experienced Adil Rashid and Akeal Hosein. They also picked up Mayank Agarwal, who was discarded by Punjab, to fill the void left by Kane Williamson at the top of the order. In all, the squad looks like one that has all the bases covered and features some of the best domestic and international T20 talent.

Strengths – The batting lineup looks solid with three Indians at the top of the order, one of whom hasn’t played for the national side but showed great potential in the last season. While at the beginning, the team seemed to lack all-round talent, the performances of Markram with the ball in the South Africa T20 League and of Jansen with the bat means that the team will be entering the tournament with a lot of all-round options, including Washington Sundar and Abhishek Sharma, both men who have improved their secondary skill massively in the past one year. The team’s bowling attack also looks extremely solid on paper and doesn’t depend on any foreign import, unlike a lot of other bowling attacks in the league. It has pace in Umran Malik, swing in Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and variation in T Natarajan.

Weaknesses – The team has gone through a lot of changes over the past few years and with Markram as captain, it’s going to undertake a new journey again this year. While Markram came good as a leader in the South African T20 League, it remains to be seen how he handles Indian cricketers in his team, a challenge in sharp contrast to leading South African nationals. With South Africa engaged in a series against the Netherlands, it’s quite possible that Captain Markram would join the team after the first match. With the team starting on a fresh note, a captain arriving late could mean that he could miss out on valuable time in getting to know the team. That can be a factor that can affect the team’s chances despite a solid squad.

Hyderabad Team in Indian T20 League 2023

There have been two teams that have represented the city in the Indian T20 League. The first team finished at the bottom of the table in the inaugural season before going on to lift the trophy in the next. They were replaced by another team from the city in 2013 which enjoyed a good run in the tournament for the most part. The team managed to make it to the playoffs in their first ever season in 2013. The following two seasons didn’t go too well for the franchise but they staged a remarkable comeback in 2016 led by David Warner and went on to win the title by beating Bangalore in a high-scoring final. The team made it to the playoffs again in the next year but couldn’t proceed further and in 2018 made it to the final, only to finish as the runners-up as Chennai emerged winners.

They did make it to playoffs in the subsequent season too but performances dipped drastically for the side in the seasons post Covid.That resulted in a lot of chopping and changing and gradually, the core that was responsible for the team’s golden run wasn’t part of the squad any longer. They released the captain for the 2022 edition, Kane Williamson, before the auctions and announced South African T20I skipper Aiden Markram as their captain for the 2023 edition. They made some big purchases in the auctions ahead of the 2023 Indian T20 League and brought in English youngster Harry Brook, South African wicket-keeper batter Heinrich Klassen and Mayank Agarwal among others.

Aiden Markram enjoyed a great season in the inaugural edition of the South African T20 League where he led the team owned by the owners of the Hyderabad franchise. He finished the tournament as the MVP, thanks to his excellent bowling and batting performances and even found himself rewarded with the T20I captaincy of the national team post the tournament. It remains to be seen what can he do for Hyderabad with Brian Lara, Dale Steyn and Muttiah Muralitharan, some big names that adorn the coaching staff of the franchise.