From no guts to glory - what changed the SRH story?

"Why is there not a single Hyderabad player in the SRH side?" was the common refrain among matchgoers at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Uppal on Wednesday.

To be sure, SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) have seldom invested in players from the state, and remain one of the very few franchises to have promoted local talent.

Spectators battling for regional pride, however, were not left disappointed as a Hyderabadi did turn up on the night, albeit wearing the blue and gold of Mumbai Indians (MI) instead of the orange of the hosts.

Tilak Varma walked out to bat at No.4 at his home ground and almost took the game away from SRH before holing out in the deep and effectively ended the visitors' resistance.

This was, however, not before Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, and Punjab batter Naman Dhir had already laid the platform for MI to attempt the chase. If the unthinkable was to be attempted, there was only one team that could have done it.

SRH, however, to their credit, kept their calm and managed to concede only 246 on a surface that seemed to hold itself at the back of a length and provide assistance to seamers of a more fortuitous nature.

But this was only one half of the carnage.

Travis Head managed to ingratiate himself with Hyderabadis

What Travis Head did when the umpires called 'play' at 7:30 PM - but not before Mayank Agarwal was distracted by a technical glitch in the sightscreen (oh, the times we live in) - would have melted even the coldest of Indian supporters, many of whom had still not forgiven him for a certain knock he played on November 19, 2023.

What Head did do - apart from winning over a few fans from east Hyderabad who went home happy with what they saw - was give SRH a backbone, and an identity. At least for this game, if not for the season.

Not picked for the first game against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens last Saturday, the Australian had a point to prove to the team management, and did so with aplomb.

Abhishek Sharma added his two cents to the total, while Aiden Markram and Heinrich Klaasen walked in and said that they would like some of the early Eid gifts disbursed by the MI bowlers.

The latter, led by the prodigal Hardik Pandya, whose return to the franchise has sparked an outcry among spectators across the country, were poor across both departments on the field, and paid a heavy price for it.

While Piyush Chawla and Kwena Maphaka suffered from the opposite ends of the spectrums of being too experienced and inexperienced, respectively, Gerald Coetzee and Pandya himself came under the hammer for being too meek.

Booed widely for his move back to MI driven supposedly by disloyalty to his former franchise Gujarat Titans by a crowd who understood little of what they were doing but were keen on emulating their Ahmedabadi peers, Pandya seemed to wilt.

His decision to bowl Jasprit Bumrah in snatches when the latter was the only bowler whom SRH decided to respect on the night backfired heavily.

SRH were far from being clinical on Wednesday

Much of this story is driven by what MI missed instead of what SRH achieved.

To expect the most laidback of franchises in the country to score the highest score ever in the history of the competition would have spurred it into action, and Wednesday was too good a day to tell this tale.

This, however, is the new SRH, driven by a new theme song and largely unaffected by its apathy towards players from the state, which has given it the honor of fielding a team in this cash-rich league.

This gutsy SRH is good to watch, though, and drives people to throng to the stadium - the likes of Markram, Cummins, Head, and Klaasen are names big enough for the software professional in Raidurg to hop on the metro.

What has been lacking in this side is a clinical nature, which came to the fore in its maiden encounter of IPL 2024 against KKR, and was almost put to the test by MI on Wednesday.

While a lot of matchgoers from Yakutpura may pay no heed, or distinguish between Cummins and Jansen, their apparent disappointment at having to see a game effectively won in the first innings dragged till the end.

For others, however, it was a case of concluding their Iftar prayers as soon as possible, wolfing down a plate of Haleem from the nearby branch of Pista House and flocking to the North Terrace.

And going home with the lingering, and often painful thought that until a Hyderabadi finds his way into this franchise, Tilak Varma - no matter which shirt he wears - will have to do.