Where Sunrisers Hyderabad finished last season
Sunrisers finished bottom of the table with just eight points.
Sunrisers Hyderabad squad for IPL 2024
Pat Cummins (capt)*, Travis Head*, Aiden Markram*, Mayank Agarwal, Heinrich Klaasen*, Anmolpreet Singh, Abdul Samad, Rahul Tripathi, Upendra Yadav, Abhishek Sharma, Glenn Phillips*, Wanindu Hasaranga*, Marco Jansen*, Shahbaz Ahmed, Washington Sundar, Sanvir Singh, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Akash Singh, Fazalhaq Farooqi*, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Markande, T Natarajan, Jhathavedh Subramanyan, Umran Malik, Jaydev Unadkat
*Overseas players
Player availability - no worries on that front
Wanindu Hasaranga will be unavailable for at least the first three games, after being named in the Test squad for the Bangladesh series.*
What's new with Sunrisers this year
It's a new season and a new captain for Sunrisers. Aiden Markram may have led Sunrisers Eastern Cape to back-to-back SA20 titles in the first two seasons of the tournament, but after Sunrisers' poor showing in IPL 2023 - actually, the last three seasons - when they won just four games, the management has decided to hand the reins to Pat Cummins, their new record signing.
Last year, Cummins led Australia to two world titles - the World Test Championship and the ODI World Cup - but this will be Cummins' first assignment as a captain in top-flight T20 cricket.
Sunrisers also signed Hasaranga at the auction for what they would consider a bargain: INR 1.5 crore. He is one of three spin-bowling allrounders alongside Washington Sundar and Shahbaz Ahmed.
Not to forget the new head coach, with Daniel Vettori replacing Brian Lara in the role. Vettori is the third head coach in three seasons for Sunrisers.
Australia's Test and ODI captain is yet to lead in a T20
The good - a strong overseas contingent
Sunrisers have great depth when it comes to overseas options. They have Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen, Glenn Phillips and Markram in the batting department, while Cummins, Hasaranga and Marco Jansen give them fantastic all-round options, at least on paper. Fast bowler Fazalhaq Farooqi is likely there as backup, but one can make a case for all of them to be in the XI.
They also have good depth in terms of allrounders. Apart from Cummins and Hasaranga, they also secured Shahbaz in the auction, while they already had Washington in their squad.
The not-so-good - consistency lacking among Indian batters
Sunrisers don't have an Indian spinner who they can turn to for regular wickets, which means they may have to use one of their overseas slots on Hasaranga. Washington is an effective powerplay bowler and Shahbaz is a decent all-round option, but neither have taken more than eight wickets in an IPL season in the past. Legspinner Mayank Markande could be important for them, having returned 12 wickets in ten games last season.
They will also want better returns from their Indian batters like Mayank Agarwal, Abhishek Sharma and Rahul Tripathi, none of whom could get past the 300-run mark last season.
Schedule highlights
With only the first bit of the schedule announced so far, we know that Sunrisers play alternate matches at home and away to start with. First up is a trip to Kolkata before they host Mumbai Indians. They then go to Ahmedabad to face Gujarat Titans before returning home for a match against defending champions Chennai Super Kings.
The big question
* The story was updated after the squad announcement.