{"id":488056,"date":"2026-03-21T18:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T18:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/488056\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T18:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T18:38:11","slug":"not-a-serious-title-contender-robin-uthappa-flags-srhs-bowling-as-major-concern-cricket-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/488056\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Not a serious title contender&#8217;: Robin Uthappa flags SRH&#8217;s bowling as major concern | Cricket News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/129722873.jpg\" alt=\"'Not a serious title contender': Robin Uthappa flags SRH's bowling as major concern\" title=\"Sunrisers Hyderabad (Image: TOI)\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>Sunrisers Hyderabad (Image: TOI) Former India cricketer Robin Uthappa has cast serious doubts over Sunrisers Hyderabad\u2019s chances in IPL 2026, stating that despite their explosive batting lineup, they are \u201cnot a serious title contender.\u201d Speaking on JioHotstar, Uthappa acknowledged SRH\u2019s aggressive approach with the bat but emphasized that it alone cannot win championships.&#8221;SRH&#8217;s aggressive batting is entertaining to watch. But batting like that won&#8217;t help them win the IPL. Their bowling is a bit on the weaker side. Bowlers are the ones who make you win the trophy,&#8221; said Uthappa.  <\/p>\n<p> Watch<\/p>\n<p> IPL 2026 should be audition for the next India T20I captain Uthappa suggested that SRH&#8217;s bowling is a concern and the bowlers need to bowl with not too much pace on Hyderabad&#8217;s &#8216;flat wickets&#8217;.&#8221;In Hyderabad, where they play seven matches, the pitch is a batting paradise. It is a super belter wicket. Even someone like Mohammed Shami could not be penetrative on those flat wickets. You need a bowler like Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He is a very clever guy. He swings the ball, changes pace, bowls yorkers. At the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, you don&#8217;t want to put too much pace on the ball because the ball does not seam around much. I don&#8217;t think SRH have the bowling unit right now that can back the instability their aggressive batting can cause if the top order does not fire.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Captaincy blow adds to concerns<\/p>\n<p>SRH suffered a big blow ahead of the season when their skipper, <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/pat-cummins\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pat Cummins<\/a>, was ruled out of the first few matches due to an injury. <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/ishan-kishan\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ishan Kishan<\/a> will lead the franchise in his absence. Uthappa also stressed that SRH&#8217;s bowling has failed to defend whenever their batters have failed to score a big total.&#8221;We saw what happened last season. Apart from <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/abhishek-sharma\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Abhishek Sharma<\/a>, Travis Head and Heinrich Klaasen, no other batter was able to step up. When the top order failed, the bowlers were not able to defend the totals. So I won&#8217;t consider SRH as a serious title contender this season,&#8221; concluded Uthappa.<\/p>\n<p>SRH squad for IPL 2026 season:<\/p>\n<p>Salil Arora, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Ravichandran Smaran, Aniket Verma, Abhishek Sharma, Brydon Carse, Harsh Dubey, Liam Livingstone, Kamindu Mendis, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Mavi, Pat Cummins, Amit Kumar, Krains Fuletra, Praful Hinge, Eshan Malinga, Harshal Patel, Sakib Hussain, Shivang Kumar, Onkar Tarmale, Jaydev Unadkat, Zeeshan Ansari.<a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/microsite_v2\/website-toisa,path-book_pass_2026.cms?utm_source=TOI&amp;utm_medium=Masthead_sports\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" frmappuse=\"1\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Banner Insert\" imgsize=\"23456\" resizemode=\"4\" title=\"\" offsetvertical=\"0\" placeholdersrc=\"\" placeholdermsid=\"\" msid=\"\" type=\"thumb\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/129493222.cms.jpeg\" data-api-prerender=\"true\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunrisers Hyderabad (Image: TOI) Former India cricketer Robin Uthappa has cast serious doubts over Sunrisers Hyderabad\u2019s chances in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[39531,1721,172828,103284,8106,172826,101,172827,172825,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-488056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-abhishek-sharma","tag-cricket","tag-ipl-title-contenders-2026","tag-ishan-kishan","tag-pat-cummins","tag-robin-uthappa-ipl-2026","tag-sports","tag-srh-squad-ipl-2026","tag-sunrisers-hyderabad-bowling","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}