Sword hangs over SRH's Harry Brook's head

Sunrisers Hyderabad are winless in the 2023 Indian Premier League so far and will look to end the dismal run in the game against PBKS on Sunday.

Winless Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) will host the unbeaten Punjab Kings (PBKS) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on April 9. 

The Sunrisers are enduring a dismal start to the 2023 season; they suffered a heavy loss against the Rajasthan Royals in their opening game and failed to bounce back, facing a five-wicket defeat to the Lucknow Super Giants in their previous fixture.

After electing to bat first, the Sunrisers' batters faltered as they never got going and only managed to score 121 in their 20 overs, with Rahul Tripathi top-scoring with 35. 

The bowlers tried hard and picked five wickets but the Super Giants chased down the total with four overs to spare. The Sunrisers will need to bring out their A-game to grab their first win against an in-form Punjab side.

The batting unit has let the team down in the opening two games. In the opener against RR while chasing 203, SRH were reduced to 52/6 and ended up at 131 after 20 overs thanks to a 32* from Abdul Samad. 

Against LSG they were reduced to 55/4 and then 109/8 after being 50/1. Only Anmolpreet Singh, Mayank Agarwal, Tripathi and Abdul Samad have made reasonable contribution in the opening two games. A lot was expected from English sensation, Harry Brook but he has only scored 16 runs in the two games. Skipper Markram, who played in his first IPL 2023 game earlier this week, was dismissed for a golden duck.

Head Coach Brian Lara made it clear after the match that the batting needed to be improved and that they need to stop losing wickets in clumps.

"I think we are losing a lot of wickets in clumps. In the first game we lost two wickets in the first over. Tonight (Friday), we lost three wickets in seven balls which changed the complexion of the game. So, we definitely have to look at our batting and come up with a solution for it," said the West Indian great during the post-match press conference.

The bowling unit has also been ineffective so far this season. Last season, the trio of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik, and T Natarajan picked up 52 wickets between them; this time, however, the trio – along with Afghan youngster Fazalhaq Farooqi have returned a paltry 8 wickets in the two games between them.

Adil Rashid and Washington Sundar have also been sub-par with Rashid picking up 2 wickets while Sundar is still searching for his first scalp of the season.