‘Expectations bring excitement’: Coach Daniel Vettori

New season brings new hopes However expectations run high for the Pat Cumminsled Sunrisers Hyderabad to recreate last yearrsquos performance or do better as they begin their campaign against a comparatively newlook Rajasthan Royals at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Sunday afternoon ldquoExpectations bring more excitementrdquo said coach Daniel VettoriThere was a turnaround of fortunes for SRH under the shrewd leadership of the experienced Cummins in 2024 From being at the bottom of the 10team table in 2023 SRH took the 2024 season by storm before losing to Kolkata Knight Riders in the finalCummins still recoveringCummins who has a wonderful captaincy record for Australia was the calming influence in SRHrsquos fairytale run However Cummins is recovering from an ankle injury and playing his first big tournament after the Test series against India Vettori said both Cummins and Nitish Kumar Reddy have done pretty well in the practice sessionsDaniel VettoriSRH had the most dangerous batters in Travis Head Abhishek Sharma Heinrich Klaasen last season and with the addition of the diminutive lefthander Ishan Kishan it has now become the most explosive batting lineup at the top Vettori asserted there will be no change in the batting order ldquoKishan will complement the openersrdquo said VettoriTo add to these four aggressive batters SRH have Reddy and new recruit Abhinav Manohar The Karnataka batter is known for his bighitting skills in the middleorder Reddy won the emerging player award last season and riding on that confidence and form the Andhra allrounder scaled a new high with his performance in the recently concluded fiveTest series against Australia that included a century at MelbourneHowever there is a little rejig in the bowling department and the notable absentee is Bhuvneshwar Kumar the twotime Purple Cap winner Bhuvneshwar who was with SRH since 2014 has moved over to Royal Challengers Bengaluru ldquoIt is a big shoe to fillrdquo remarked Vettori but stressed that canny Mohammed Shami who was roped in this year is coming into the tournament with a good performance in the Champions Trophy By bringing in utility allrounder Harshal Patel and Australian legspinner Adam Zampa SRH have an attack that is incisive and purposeful along with Cummins and ReddyOn the other hand RR have a revamped team with Rahul Dravid as head coach Back in the IPL franchise Dravid has his task cut out Sanju Samson who will not captain the first three matches said they were happy to have Dravid back ldquoI have not missed any match We have Dravid as coach but the team looks goodrdquo he saidThe team have not retained Englandrsquos Jos Buttler the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal and New Zealandrsquos leftarm seamer Trent Boult Also Sanju Samson is still recovering from his right index finger injury ldquoWe have fresh players and fresh thinking IPL always throws challenges and it is good to have so many young playersrdquo revealed SamsonRiyan Parag to lead RRRR had to announce Assam skipper Riyan Parag as their captain for the first three matches as Samson can only bat Interestingly RR have the youngest captain in 23yearold Parag and the youngest player in 13yearold Vaibhav Suryavanshi Samson said ldquoYoung Parag is ready and prepared We have also recognised the special talent of Suryavanshi and he is in the good hands of someone like DravidrdquoRR will bank on Yashasvi Jaiswalrsquos batting exploits at the top Apart from Parag and Shimron Hetmyer Dravid has Nitish Rana and Dhruv Jurel as other big players in the batting RR have brought in Lankarsquos successful spin twins in Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana