Picture Credit: Twitter/SRH
Sunrisers Hyderabad were undoubtedly one of the most active teams during the recently-concluded IPL 2022 mega auction, as they came up with one of the highest purses. As it turned out, they did a remarkable job in building a solid squad for the upcoming season of the cash-rich league.
ALSO READ | Complete Squad of Sunrisers Hyderabad after IPL 2022 Mega Auction
There were quite a few interesting buys made by SRH and their spin-bowling coach Muttiah Muralitharan has now opened up on their strategies. One of the major surprises was their intense bidding on youngster Abhishek Sharma, who has been a part of SRH side in recent seasons but has not been able to seal his place in playing XI.
However, Murali has now revealed that Abhishek has been bought for such a hefty amount as he is set to be their opener for next season, alongside captain Kane Williamson (who has mostly batted at No. 3 for the franchise in past).
In conversation with Sportskeeda, he said, "Abhishek was pretty much part of our initial plans. He was in and out of the side last season, but we want him to assume greater responsibility this time. We want him to open the batting alongside Kane [Williamson]. That will help us get a good left-hand, right-hand combination at the top."
The 49-year-old went on to give a complete insight to how SRH batting order might look like in IPL 2022. "As I said, Kane [Williamson] and Abhishek [Sharma] will open the batting. They will be followed by Aiden [Markram] at 3, Rahul [tripathi] at 4, [Nicholas] Pooran at 5, [Abdul] Samad at 6 and Washington [Sundar] at 7. That’s our tentative top seven," said Murali.
Well, if this is actually the batting order of Sunrisers Hyderabad, it will indeed be one of the most exciting and expensive top seven, with a worth of Rs 55.1 crore. The amount for which all the mentioned players have been retained/bought is as follows:
Kane Williamson (Rs 14 crore)
Abhishek Sharma (Rs 6.50 crore)
Aiden Markram (Rs 2.60 crore)
Rahul Tripathi (Rs 8.50 crore)
Nicholas Pooran (Rs 10.75 crore)
Abdul Samad (Rs 4 crore)
Washington Sundar (Rs 8.75 crore)
With players like Romario Shepherd, Marco Jansen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik, Kartik Tyagi and T Natarajan in the bowling department, the SRH team will indeed be one to watch out for in IPL 2022.
