Former England captain Michael Vaughan isn’t pleased with the strategy of SRH and served them a warning ahead of the remaining games of IPL 2025. Vaughan feels that preparing flat wickets might dent their bowlers’ confidence which can prove detrimental for them.
Sunrisers Hyderabad are known for their power-packed batting line-up and depend on them to win games. However, the strategy didn’t go to plan during their match against Lucknow Super Giants in Hyderabad.
Their ultra-aggressive approach led to their own fall as LSG gave them a thrashing. Michael Vaughan was also critical of this highly aggressive batting approach and felt that the team needed to be smarter.
Also read: “It was a different wicket…”: Pat Cummins blames pitch for SRH’s loss to LSG
Michael Vaughan serves SRH a reminder
During his conversation with Cricbuzz, Michael Vaughan spoke about Sunrisers’ bowling line-up rather than their batting. He recalled the poor numbers from SRH’s bowlers in both the games and feels that their confidence will go down as the tournament progresses.
“Obviously, we talk about Hyderabad’s batting, the power, and the huge scores they get. They’ve got to be careful that the bowlers don’t lose confidence. You know, because their bowlers are bowling on this road. You look at those numbers. I mean, Pat Cummins has done well tonight, but he went for 60 in the first game,” Vaughan said.
“(Adam) Zampa’s been destroyed, really, tonight. (Mohammed) Shami’s gone at 12 today. So you’ve got to be careful with your bowling attack, that they don’t just bowl on roads in your home venue, and then you suddenly get on there, and you’re expecting them to deliver, and they’re not full of confidence,” he added.
Mohammed Shami picked up an early wicket against LSG by dismissing Aiden Markram but finished with rather disappointing figures of 1-37 in three overs. On the other hand, Zampa was absolutely taken for the cleaners in his spell as he finished with 1-46 in four overs.
Michael Vaughan slams SRH’s batting approach
The legendary England cricketer is concerned about SRH’s approach and believes that they need to change their strategy in order to win the tournament. According to Vaughan, a team cannot win a big tournament just by playing with one style.
“I’m yet to see a team with a major event playing just one style of cricket. I’m just worried that the Sunrisers just play this one style of cricket, and they might just have to go up and down at the gears. Yes, go aggressive when you can, but it might not be possible every time you go out to bat,” Vaughan mentioned.
“And tonight, they fell short because they were ultra-aggressive. They had a little bit of fortune, but they were ultra-aggressive. And if they played a little bit smarter, would they have got 220, 230? he wondered.
SRH suffer first defeat of IPL 2025
After a thumping win over Rajasthan Royals in their first match, SRH slumped to a big defeat to LSG. Sunrisers were totally outplayed on the day and were in trouble since their batting line-up failed to score more than 200 on a flat batting surface.
LSG chased down the target within 16.1 overs with 5 wickets remaining. Shardul Thakur played a key role for LSG with the ball, finishing with 4-34 in four overs. Mitchell Marsh and Nicholas Pooran shone with blistering half-centuries with the bat for Super Giants.
SRH will next move out of their home in Hyderabad to face Delhi Capitals at Visakhapatnam on March 30 in a day-game. It remains to be seen whether Sunrisers change their strategy ahead of an important game.
