IPL Auction prediction: Which players can SRH target with Rs 45 crore budget

SunRisers Hyderabad enjoyed unprecented success in 2024 after a terrible controversy-filled drought in recent years of the Indian Premier League. The Pat Cummins led side reached the final of the tournament, but got blanked by a superior Kolkata Knight Riders in the final at the M Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

The success, which was scripted by the new batting-heavy identity, came with its own problems. SRH, who ideally would have liked to keep the majority of their players, were cut short to just 5 players ahead of the mega-auction.

SRH managed to retain majority of their core players ahead of the Indian Premier League mega-auction, set to be held on November 24 and 25 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The 2024 finalists shelled out a massive Rs 75 crore to keep 5 of their top players and have a task of rebuilding the rest of their team at a paltry budget of Rs 45 crore.

The SRH management, which will be in its second year in the upcoming season, decided to shell out Rs 23 crore for Heinrich Klaasen – making him the most expensive retention in the history of the tournament. They made their adjustments in the rest of the retentions, keeping Pat Cummins, Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head and youngster Nitish Kumar Reddy.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the retention? Which players can the team target in the IPL mega-auction? Here’s a comprehensive look.

SRH: List of Retained Players

Heinrich Klaasen: Rs 23 crore

Pat Cummins: Rs 18 crore

Travis Head: Rs 14 crore

Abhishek Sharma: Rs 14 crore

Nitish Reddy: Rs 6 crore

SRH: List of Released Players

Abdul Samad, Aiden Markram*, Rahul Tripathi, Glenn Phillips*, Mayank Agarwal, Anmolpreet Singh, Upendra Singh Yadav, Marco Jansen*, Washington Sundar, Sanvir Singh, Wanindu Hasaranga*, Akash Singh, Shahbaz Ahamad, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Fazalhaq Farooqi*, Jaydev Unadkat, T Natarajan, Umran Malik, Mayank Markande, Jhathavedh Subramanyan, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth

* – Overseas Player

CLEAR IDENTITY

The one thing that has been made clear by the SRH retentions is that they are going to stick to their identity. No one knows if the side is going to reach the highs of 287, 277 and 266, but one can confidently say that they will try to recreate their success mantra once again.

SRH have majorly taken care of their batting by keeping hold of Heinrich Klaasen, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, who scored the majority of their runs last season. They have, of course, retained their captain – Pat Cummins, who agreed to let go of the top retention spot for Klaasen by lowering his salary.

The final retention came in the form of Nitish Kumar Reddy, who impressed the fans and the selctors with his lower-order batting and fast bowling in the previous season.

Essentially, what SRH have done is that they have taken care of nearly 15 overs of batting, and at least 6 overs of bowling in the next season.

Which means that the team will need to find key components for important phases of the game – such as – death bowling, spin bowling, and middle order batting.

SRH’s LACK OF SPINNER

In the 2024 season, SRH’s biggest issue was the lack of an influential spinner. While Shahbaz Ahmed did well by picking up 7 wickets and conceding just below 10 RPO, SRH would ideally like to do better in that department.

One of the main reasons for SRH’s struggle was Wanindu Hasaranga pulling out of the competition at the last minute, which forced the team to make key changes to their combination.

One of SRH’s major focusses will be in this region and do not be surprised if they manage to splurge a decent amount of money, either on an Indian spinner or on an overseas spinner who can be handy with the bat.

SRH: POSSIBLE COMBINATION

With Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Pat Cummins being retained, SRH need to fill 6 spots in their playing XI.

Here is the possible combination that the side can make.

Travis Head

Abhishek Sharma

(Indian batter)

(Indian better)

Heinrich Klaasen

Nitish Reddy

(Indian all rounder/Pure Indian batter)

(Overseas spinner who can bat)

Pat Cummins

(Indian spinner)

(Indian pacer)

Considering that the budget is Rs 45 crore, needed to fill a minimum of 13 spots in the squad, here are the top players (6) that SRH can target in this IPL mega-auction.

INDIAN BATTERS

The No.3 and No.4 are key positions for any IPL team. Given the argument is that SRH will splurge money in the spin department, it is highly unlikely that SRH will be afford to bag an Indian big name.

In that case, SRH can look at players like Venkatesh Iyer and Nehal Wadhera, who are not at the top tier in the Indian cricketing ecosystem, but are not far away from it either. If SRH can bag Wadhera for a reasonable amount of money, they might be able to bag someone like Venkatesh Iyer, who won the IPL title for KKR last season.

INDIAN ALL-ROUNDER

SRH have a fast-bowling all-rounder in Nitish Reddy. They might want to find a spin-bowling all-rounder of Indian origin. SRH had Shahbaz Ahmed, Abdul Samad and Washington Sundar with them last season, and it is possible that they buy back at least two of them.

OVERSEAS SPINNER

The gap left by the exit of Rashid Khan is one of the biggest in world cricket. SRH tried to solve it by adding Hasaranga last season, but he opted out due to injury.

SRH can likely target Hasaranga in the mega-auction once again, and maybe try their luck at finding Rachin Ravindra, who can be fairly handy with the ball as well.

INDIAN BOWLING CORE

The department that SRH will need to work the most is an Indian bowling core. SRH have released all of their specialist Indian bowlers and might want to either use an RTM card on straight-up buy back a few of them.

SRH might try to hunt for Mohammed Siraj in the auction, given he has been released by Royal Challengers Bengaluru and might look for a new home. SRH can call-upon the hometown hero and give him the new ball alongside Pat Cummins… maybe?

As said before, SRH need to find an Indian spinner and there are several available in the market. If they manage to bag Washington Sundar or Rachin Ravindra as the spin-bowling all-rounders, they can hunt for someone like Yuzvendra Chahal or Rahul Chahar – wrist spinners.

They will not come cheap, and that might turn out to be the Achilles Heel for SRH in the auction this season.

Potential Playing XI for SRH

Travis Head

Abhishek Sharma

Venkatesh Iyer

Nehal Wadhera

Heinrich Klaasen

Nitish Reddy

Ashutosh/Washington Sundar

Wanindu Hasaranga/Rachin Ravindra

Pat Cummins

Yuzvendra Chahal/Rahul Chahar

Mohammed Siraj, T Natararan (RTM)/Bhuvneshwar Kumar (RTM)