Sunrisers Hyderabad bowling will biggest weakness: Faf du Plessis said that the biggest weakness of Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2026 is its bowling.

New Delhi: Former South African captain Faf du Plessis has told about a major weakness of the team before IPL 2026. Du Plessis believes that there is a lack of wicket-taking bowlers in the Sunrisers Hyderabad team. For the last few years, Sunrisers' strategy has been to put pressure on the opposition team with batting and with the help of its hitters, it gives good scores to the bowlers to defend.

However, there was a time when Sunrisers team used to win the match even after scoring only 130 runs in the first innings. With this strategy, they reached the final in 2024, but finished sixth last season as some of their key players like Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head and Nitish Kumar Reddy were not in form. Du Plessis said, “When I look at Sunrisers, I remember the West Indies T20 World Cup team, whose batting is very strong. But when I look at the squad, I think, who are my wicket-takers?”

SRH will have to strengthen its bowling – Du Plessis

Regarding the bowling of Sunrisers, Du Plessis said, “Cummins is the captain, so he is the main option, but apart from him, who are the others? Who are the two-three bowlers who can take wickets in the death overs and in the powerplay? I am not completely convinced after seeing the names. If they want a good season, they will have to put pressure on the opposition bowlers and defeat the teams by scoring more runs. When the opposition team comes to bat and chases 260 runs, they will get out under pressure.”

Former bowling coach of Chennai Super Kings Lakshmipathy Balaji also agrees with this. He expressed surprise at SRH dropping Mohammed Shami and weakening their bowling. Balaji said, “I was a bit surprised at the trade of Mohammed Shami between SRH and LSG. Harshal Patel is another option and has experience in the death overs, but apart from that the bowling lineup seems weak. They have first tried Jaydev Unadkat, who will bowl a few overs initially. There is also Shivam Mavi, who has been struggling with injuries. They also do not have any big names in the spin department.”