IPL 2021: Sunrisers Hyderabad full squad and player stats

Retained Players: David Warner, Kane Williamson, Jonny Bairstow, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Manish Pandey, Mohammad Nabi, Jason Roy, Jason Holder, Vijay Shankar, Sreevats Goswami, Wriddhiman Saha, Abhishek Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Siddharth Kaul, Shahbaz Nadeem, Basil Thampi, T. Natarajan, Virat Singh, Priyam Garg, Abdul Samad.

Released players: Billy Stanlake, Fabian Allen, Sandeep Bavanaka, Sanjay Yadav and Prithvi Raj Yarra

New Additions: Kedar Jadhav, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, Jagadeesha Suchith

Like Anrich Nortje, all-rounder Jason Holder proved to be a genius casting choice in place of all-rounder Mitchell Marsh. He played just 7 games and took 14 wickets as his variations and accuracy worked wonders for the Sunrisers side. 

Manish Pandey solved Sunrisers' middle-order issues to a certain extent as he showed some of his best hitting skills batting at his favourable No 3 spot. With three fifties, Pandey amassed 425 runs in 16 games at an average of 32.69 with highest of match-winning 83* against Rajasthan Royals.

Having impressed in the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) and warmed the Sunrisers' benches for a couple of seasons, Thangarasu Natarajan finally featured in the starting playing 11 for his side and decided to hold on to it and never leave it. With his exceptional death bowling skills, 'Yorker Natarajan' came to the fore as he became one of the most important cogs in the wheel of SRH. In 16 games, he took 16 wickets at an economy of 8.02.

When doesn't he perform, when is he in bad form? Rashid Khan did what he does best in the last season as well, applying breaks on the opposition's scoring rate and take heaps of wickets. Giving away runs at just 5.37, the miserly Rashid took 20 wickets in 16 games he played with the best figures of 3/7 in his four overs. Having added the batting prowess to his armoury, Rashid is a dangerous customer, especially in this format.

 

Sunrisers' leader of the bowling attack, Bhuvneshwar Kumar got injured in just the fourth game of his side and was ruled out later due to a hip injury. He took three wickets in those games and didn't feature in any of the games in the rest of the tournament. However, after recovering from injury, the fitter Bhuvi is back and slowly returned to his best in the eight games he featured for Team India in the limited-overs leg of the England series, taking crucial wickets and containing opposition. 

Williamson's spot in the XI was also a matter of discussion for Sunrisers management as the New Zealand skipper was also in and out of the team for a few games initially after which he became a permanent feature in the line-up owing to what he was giving to the side as a solid middle-order batsman and a helping hand for Warner in the field as part of the leadership group. Williamson played a couple of brilliant innings including three fifty-plus scores and amassed 317 runs in the 12 games he played.

England opener Jonny Bairstow was once again was at his best batting alongside Warner. However, inconsistency hit him during the tournament and eventually had to sacrifice his spot for the sake of team balance as Sunrisers could play only one of Bairstow and Williamson with Jason Holder strengthening his position with performances with both bat and the ball. At an average of 31.36, Bairstow amassed 345 runs in the 11 games he played.

As usual, David Warner was one of the highest run-getters of the last IPL season scoring 548 runs in 16 games. Warner wasn't his fluent best at the start of the tournament as he was struggling with his timing, but as the tournament progressed the dasher came into his own as he finished the tournament with four fifties at an average of 39.14.