IPL 2021 Auction: 3 cricketers Sunrisers Hyderabad are likely to release

Sunrisers Hyderabad are often known to punch above their weight in the Indian Premier League (IPL) which they showed in the 2020 edition by making it to the 2nd Qualifier. The SRH team is always short on star India batters but have been able to manage it with some quality bowling attack. Ahead of the 2021 edition, they might be looking to release few players who at best can be backup options to their current line-up. Here are the three players whom Sunrisers Hyderabad might look to release ahead of the IPL 2021:

Khaleel Ahmed:

Khaleel Ahmed has got a decent record for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL having picked 27 wickets in 17 games but at an economy rate close to 9. During the 2020 edition, Khaleel played seven games and bagged 8 wickets but went at an economy rate of 9.42.

Given the way he has performed for India in T20Is, SRH might not be interested to retain the left-arm pacer given their long list of pace bowling options in the squad. Moreover, Khaleel was bought by Sunrisers for 3 crore INR and leaving him could increase their savings.

Shahbaz Nadeem:

The left-arm pacer Shahbaz Nadeem hasn’t been able to replicate his success at the first-class level into the T20 format at least for the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Nadeem has only seven wickets to his name in 10 IPL games for SRH with five of them coming across seven matches last season at an economy rate over 8.

SRH has to look for better spin bowling options from the Indian domestic circuit preferably an off-spinner as they don’t have any of such variation at the moment. Releasing Nadeem could also save 3.2 crore INR for the Hyderabad franchise.

Basil Thampi:

Basil Thampi came into the SRH team with a reputation of bowling high speeds but ended up conceding runs at a high economy rate. In the 8 IPL matches for Sunrisers, Thampi has bagged six wickets at an economy rate of 10.31 and also holds the record for conceding the most number of runs in an IPL game.

He got to play only one match in the IPL 2020 where he gave away 46 runs in four overs. Considering his poor show, the Sunrisers might be interested in leaving him and bringing a young Indian pacer to strengthen their pace battery. SRH spent 95 lakhs INR in roping the Kerala speedster ahead of the 2018 edition.