IPL 2026 Eliminator – SRH vs RR – ‘A brand to admire but it comes at a cost’ – Moody wants SRH to invest in bowlers

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) won nine of their 14 league-stage matches at IPL 2026, and placed third – Gujarat Titans (GT) were second – only on net run rate. “Overall we’ve had a really good season,” their fast-bowling coach James Franklin said after SRH exited the tournament in the Eliminator, but Tom Moody, head coach at SRH when they won the title in 2016, feels the team is all about their big batters, and have been “left short with the finances to be able to build a strong bowling unit” as a result.

“It is a brand to admire but it comes at a cost,” Moody said on ESPNcricinfo TimeOut after SRH were blown away by Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Jofra Archer. “They’re yet to lift the trophy with this brand. Yes, they’re giving themselves a window of opportunity. But the cost is also the fact that you need to invest to play that brand. And that investment is lost when it comes to the bowling side. So you’re pouring a lot of money into the way you play as a batting unit. You’re left short with the finances to be able to build a strong bowling unit to be able to support that.”

SRH broke the IPL auction record for an overseas player when they bought Pat Cummins for INR 20.50 crore ahead of the 2024 season. But they don’t have another really big name – and certainly no big spinner – in their bowling unit, with Malinga, Gerald Coetzee and Dilshan Madushanka the other overseas options. Harshal Patel, Purple Cap winner in 2021 and 2024, played just five games this season, didn’t get a wicket, and went at 10.82.

“It’s [about] trying to find that balance and I think that’s what RCB [Royal Challengers Bengaluru] have got. They’ve got that balance right,” Moody said. “So, I’m not against the brand but you’ve got to try to balance it out when you’re talking about the salary cap and everything.”

“Overall, not a lot’s gone wrong. Like every team, we’ll go away from the tournament, reflect. There’s obviously a lot of time now before the next IPL, when you start to think about who you retain and then there’ll be another auction. So that’s a long way away”

James Franklin, SRH fast-bowling coach

Ambati Rayudu agreed with Moody, saying, “They can be brilliant like this. They’re very, very good on the eye. They’re very exciting. But still, to win an IPL, you need to be smart as well as be powerful. I think that can only improve if you get that kind of personnel and also get the balance and also be able to play in different conditions. That’s one area where they need to improve.”

The problem with finishing third, and not first or second, after the league stage meant SRH had to play the Eliminator, and not get two bites of the cherry the way the top-two teams do.

“I don’t think it [the season] went wrong,” Franklin said at the press conference after the match. “I mean, we’ve won nine out of 14 round-robin games. We ended up third on the table due to net run rate. I think overall we’ve had a really good season. I don’t think too much has gone wrong.”

Franklin pointed to the emergence of the young crop of Indian players as a big positive for SRH.

“Shivang, Praful Hinge, Sakib Hussain, Salil Arora, [R] Smaran. So there’s five in our starting XI that have come in this year,” he said. “Which is great, which is what you want as a franchise – to have the emergence of young talent coming through every year as well as obviously your senior players, your senior contributors, which again, we’ve had the top four have been amazing. The runs that they’ve amassed, the games that they’ve won, the partnerships that they’ve had have been brilliant.

“And then I think the other factor to that – and the biggest compliment that we’ve had within the playing group – has obviously been Nitish Kumar Reddy, the way that he’s made lovely contributions with the bat and taken some vital wickets for us. That is the beauty of having a genuine allrounder in your team – they can make those nice contributions both with bat and ball.

“So, overall, not a lot’s gone wrong. Like every team, we’ll go away from the tournament, reflect. There’s obviously a lot of time now before the next IPL, you know, when you start to think about who you retain and then there’ll be another auction. So that’s a long way away.”

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