Sunrisers Hyderabad have a monumental task ahead of them as skipper David Warner's absence has left a big void in the team.
Warner has been one of the stand out performers for SRH in the last couple of seasons and his absence will be a huge blow for them. Warner is the highest overseas run-scorer in the IPL with 4014 runs.
Sunrisers Hyderabad had the most established opening pair in the IPL-Warner & Dhawan. Together, they accounted for 42 of the 62 50-plus scores managed by SRH.
The Aussie has single-handedly managed 43.55% of SRH’s 50-plus scores in the IPL (27 out of 62). He was the leading run-scorer for SRH in each IPL edition from 2014 to 2017: -
o 528 in 2014: Next was Dhawan with 377.
o 562 in 2015: Next was Dhawan with 353. Warner also won the Purple Cap.
o 848 in 2016: Next was Dhawan with 501.
o 641 in 2017: Next was Dhawan with 479. Warner also won the Purple Cap.
Warner has also scored the only century for SRH in IPL. He scored 126 against KKR at Hyderabad in 2017.
The top-six individuals scores by an SRH batsman have been by Warner (and all are 90-plus).
In his absence, all eyes will be on Kane Williamson, who will be leading the Sunrisers Hyderabad for the first time.
He’ll be the fifth foreign-born skipper after Warner, Sangakkara, Cameron White & Darren Sammy. While Williamson hasn’t captained in the IPL, he has captained NZ in 33 matches.
Out of the 33, he has won 17 matches. Williamson’s 17 T20I victories are the most by any Kiwi skipper (McCullum & Vettori are next with 13 apiece) and his win rate is the best (min. 5 matches in charge) – 51.52%
He has scored 894 runs for NZ in T20Is as a captain, the most by a Kiwi captain.
Sunrisers head coach Tom Moody has recently said here that the change in captaincy in a short notice had little impact on the team.
Though Williamson is not new to captaincy, he would be expected to quickly deliver the goods in the leadership role.
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