Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) have suffered a big blow before their final league stage fixture against Punjab Kings (PBKS) as their captain Kane Williamson has flown back home for the birth of his 2nd child. Williamson-led SRH ended their losing run against Mumbai Indians (MI) on Tuesday (May 17) and kept their chances of making it to the next round alive.
They will have to defeat PBKS on Sunday (May 22). The fixture could also be a dead rubber if Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore win their respective matches. Williamson-led SRH have had an interesting season so far. After losing their first 2 matches, they went on a winning streak and registered five back-to-back wins. After five successive wins, they lost 5 consecutive matches before snapping their losing streak against MI.
Williamson might consider returning to IPL if SRH make it to the next round. In his absence, SRH will have a new captain for the fixture against PBKS. They faced a similar situation last year as Williamson was unavailable for the final league stage fixture against MI.
David Warner was sacked from captaincy in the first half of the season and he continued to stay on the bench. Do you know who led SRH in that fixture?
Manish Pandey, who had joined SRH for Rs 11 crore in 2018, captained the Orange Army. Pandey has captained India A and Karnataka state team. SRH were already out of the contention while MI had to win that game by 171 runs to qualify for the playoffs. Batting first, MI put on a total of 235 on the board and registered a 42-run win to crash out.
Pandey was released by SRH before IPL 2022 mega auction. They did try to re-sign the right-handed batsman and were ready to spend Rs 2.80 crore on him. He was signed up by Lucknow Super Giants for Rs 4.60 crore. The franchise retained Williamson along with uncapped players Umran Malik and Abdul Samad.
