Sunrisers Hyderabad have enough depth to replace David Warner: Tom Moody

Banned Australian opener David Warner’s ouster from Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) had “very little” impact on the team, said head coach Tom Moody, who believes they have a well balanced squad with enough depth to replace the former captain.

Sunrisers Hyderabad had to replace their regular skipper Warner with New Zealand captain Kane Williamson after BCCI barred the former Australian vice-captain from the 2018 Indian Premier League (IPL), following the one-year ban imposed by Cricket Australia (CA) for his role in the ball tampering scandal in South Africa.

Read more | IPL 2018: Kolkata Knight Riders look the only team that may struggle to field a solid XI

“Very little, to be honest with you,” Moody told reporters when asked about the impact of change in captaincy in a short notice on the team.

“We have a very well balanced squad where we have a number of different people that can fill different roles within the team. We are replacing a good captain in David Warner, who was vice captain of the Australian team, with another international captain (Kane Williamson),” he said.

Moody said the team managed to get the depth and balance it wanted during the IPL players’ auction.

“The success we had in the auction, we managed to get the depth and balance that we wanted. Therefore, losing an impact player like David Warner, we have managed to fill, we can still get the balance we want, still have the impact that we want in the top six.

Read more | IPL 2018: Kagiso Rabada injured, to miss tournament for Delhi Daredevils

“We are pretty comfortable and to be honest with you, there is nothing we can do about what happened with David Warner. We have moved on from there,” he said.

Moody hailed Williamson for his leadership qualities as captain of the New Zealand team.

“We are delighted to have Kane step in as captain this year. We have all seen what he is capable of doing with his leadership with New Zealand,” he said.

“Williamson is strategically very sound and played an important role in Sunrisers Hyderabad over the last few years.”

SRH welcomed its new players in the presence of Moody, the team mentor VVS Laxman, bowling coach Muttaiah Muralitharan, vice captain Bhuvneshwar Kumar and others at an event here.

Read more | Mahela Jayawardene, Rohit Sharma back introduction of DRS in Indian Premier League

The new additions to the SRH side are Alex Hales, T Natarajan, Shreevats Goswami, Wriddhiman Saha, Syed Khaleel Ahmed, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Basil Thampi, Sachin Baby, Sandeep Sharma, Syed Mehdi Hasan, Billy Stanlake, Carlos Braithwaite and Shakib Al Hasan.

Laxman said an effort has been made to address the concerns over the side’s middle order batting during the last few years.

“You talked about this four, five top class batsman. But, there is lot of depth in the batting line up and that’s something which was a conscious effort going into the auction,” he said.

Read more | Mumbai Indians not favourites for Indian Premier League title, says coach Mahela Jayawardene

“Because, over the last two, three years, we were not really happy that our middle order, that they did not play to the expectations, that is something which we consciously focused on, targeting players who can do well as a batsmen.

“The team this year has got players who can do well in the middle overs and players who can finish games.”

Muralitharan said the team has a formidable spin attack with the presence of players such as Rashid Khan, Bipul Sharma and Shakib Al Hasan.