The much-awaited Indian Premier League (IPL) is ready to get down to business in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from September 19. Recently, the Government of India also gave clearance to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in order to stage the tournament in the middle-east nation. The franchises will shortly meet with the board members to discuss the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the competition.
The highly-rated T20 tournament will be played amid COVID-19 period so there will be strict standards and restrictions for the players and support staff of IPL franchises. Recently, the IPL Governing Council, decided that teams can travel to the UAE with a maximum of 24 players in each squad.
When it comes to the franchises, then only Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) have more than 24 players in their squad. This means that they will have to leave one of their players behind before leaving for the tournament.
Speaking about Sunrisers, it was founded in 2012 after IPL terminated the Hyderabad-based Deccan Chargers. SRH is currently captained by David Warner and coached by Trevor Bayliss. The Sunrisers won their maiden IPL title under the leadership of Warner in the 2016 season, defeating Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by eight runs in the final. Since that season, the team has qualified for the play-off stage of the tournament in every edition.
But who will have to leave the SRH squad before the team flies to UAE? Let’s see five such players, one of whom, could be dropped from Sunrisers in order to trim the squad down to 24 players:
1.) Abdul Samad
Abdul Samad, the youngster from Jammu and Kashmir, could be dropped from the SRH squad for this IPL season. During the 2018 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Abdul made his T20 debut for Jammu and Kashmir. He played 11 games and scored just 240 runs with 76 being his best.
In September 2019, Abdul played his first List-A match in Vijay Hazare Trophy and then in December 2019, he made his first-class debut in Ranji Trophy. The right-handed batter has played 8 List-A games, scoring 592 runs. Similarly, he has appeared in 10 FC games, amassing 237 runs.
2.) Abhishek Sharma
Another youngster who could face the heat is Abhishek Sharma from Punjab. The 20-year-old has the ability to score quick runs down the order and bowl some quality spin bowling. He first came into the limelight with a century on Under-19 debut for Punjab in the Vinoo Mankad Trophy.
Abhishek also led India to victory in the U-19 Asia Cup in 2016, before he was replaced as captain by Prithvi Shaw. The youngster has all the qualities to get nurtured but considering his age and lack of experience, Abhishek falls in the list of candidates who might get dropped from the SRH squad.
3.) Bavanaka Sandeep
A talented left-handed batsman from Hyderabad, Bavanka Sandeep has impressed several people with his outstanding run in the domestic circuit. The Andhra Pradesh player has impressive records to his name in First-Class cricket.
In 58 games, Sandeep has smashed 3631 runs at an average of 44.82 with seven hundreds and 21 half-centuries, including a double hundred. However, despite being a run-machine in the domestic arena, Sandeep doesn’t carry enough experience of IPL in order to cement his place in the squad.
4.) Billy Stanlake
The 25-year-old speedster from Australia, Billy Stanlake is a pretty popular name in the cricketing world. Stanlake has impressed cricket experts and fans with his superior pace and bounce. However, back injuries have caused problems for Stanlake in the past, and that could well be a key factor behind dropping his name from the squad.
Apart from the injury factor, Stanlake wouldn’t be as effective in the conditions of UAE as he might’ve been had if the IPL was happening in India.
5.) Sanjay Yadav
Another player from the domestic arena is Sanjay Yadav, who plays for Tamil Nadu. Sanjay is a batting all-rounder who also bowls slow left-arm orthodox. He was signed up by the Kolkata Knight Riders at the 2017 auction for INR 10 lakh but never got the opportunity to play.
Sanjay moved to Meghalaya cricket team ahead of the 2019-20 season as a professional. He belongs to the list of potential candidates who could be dropped by SRH ahead of their visit to the UAE.
Here is Sunrisers Hyderabad full squad:
Kane Williamson, David Warner, Manish Pandey, Virat Singh, Priyam Garg, Abdul Samad, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Siddharth Kaul, Billy Stanlake, T Natarajan, Abhishek Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mitchell Marsh, Fabian Allen, Vijay Shankar, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Sanjay Yadav, Jonny Bairstow, Wriddhiman Saha, Shreevats Goswami, Bavanaka Sandeep, Basil Thampi.
