IPL team preview: Sunrisers Hyderabad

In their first season, last year, they came fourth, and the squad is even stronger this time. With Dale Steyn leading the bowling, this side will be tough to beat.

<b>Captain</b>: Shikhar Dhawan<br><b>Coach</b>: Tom Moody<br><b>IPL Best</b>: 4th (2013)<br><b>Cricket365 prediction:</b> Winner

<b>Overview</b>With Shikhar Dhawan, David Warner and Aaron Finch on their books, SRH have one of the strongest top orders in the competition, on a par with RCB's. If Warner and Finch get cracking, there will be fireworks and tired dancing pretty people all over the place. Added to that Darren Sammy can play a mean cameo knock, as he's shown recently, and Zimbabwe's Brendan Taylor is always good for a few runs. In their first season, last year, they came fourth, and the squad is even stronger this time. With Dale Steyn leading the bowling, this side will be tough to beat.

<b>Key Batsman</b><br>Pick up a dart and throw in, and you'll likely hit someone who can bat. With Pune Warriors disappearing, the race was on to sign newly-free Aaron Finch, and the Sunrisers won the dash. The big Aussie is a thrilling player to watch, and while he might not come off in every game, when he does, it tends to win matches. He can hit the ball miles, like his countryman WArner, and together they will be deadly.

<b>Key Bowler</b><br>Obviously, South Africa paceman Dale Steyn is the side's best/most intimidating bowler. He demonstrated his T20 skills in the recent event in Bangladesh, where he defended seven runs in the last over against New Zealand, resulting in four wickets in that over and a win by three runs for the Proteas. He did well for the Sunrisers last year, taking 19 wickets. Amit Mishra was the side's top wicket-taker, with 21.

<b>Likely Benchwarmer</b><br>India under-19 batsman Ricky Bhui is just 17 and will be using this as a way to gain experience around some big international names. He's only played nine professional matches, and has not scored many runs recently, but will find the experience valuable. If he gets a game, he'll want to show that his dire Under19 World Cup was an aberration.
We feel we have got a very good balance in our side that allows us to adapt."

<b>Squad:</b> Shikhar Dhawan, Srikkanth Anirudha, Ashish Reddy, Ricky Bhui, Aaron Finch, Moises Henriques, Jason Holder, Manpreet Juneja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Chama Milind, Amit Mishra, Naman Ojha, Prasanth Parameswaran, Parvez Rasool, Irfan Pathan, Amit Paunikar, Lokesh Rahul, Darren Sammy, Ishant Sharma, Karn Sharma, Dale Steyn, Brendan Taylor, Venugopal Rao, David Warner.

<b>Fixtures</b><br>Fri Apr 18 Sunrisers Hyderabad v Rajasthan Royals<br>Tue Apr 22 Kings XI Punjab v Sunrisers Hyderabad<br>Fri Apr 25 Sunrisers Hyderabad v Delhi Daredevils<br>Sun Apr 27 Sunrisers Hyderabad v Chennai Super Kings<br>Wed Apr 30 Mumbai Indians v Sunrisers Hyderabad<br>Sun May 4 Royal Challengers Bangalore v Sunrisers Hyderabad<br>Thu May 8 Rajasthan Royals v Sunrisers Hyderabad<br>Sat May 10 Delhi Daredevils v Sunrisers Hyderabad<br>Mon May 12 Sunrisers Hyderabad v Mumbai Indians<br>Wed May 14 Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kings XI Punjab<br>Sun May 18 Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kolkata Knight Riders<br>Tue May 20 Sunrisers Hyderabad v Royal Challengers Bangalore<br>Thu May 22 Chennai Super Kings v Sunrisers Hyderabad<br>Sat May 24 Kolkata Knight Riders v Sunrisers Hyderabad

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