IPL 2025: SRH have laid down the marker, and other teams must follow

It’s just one match on which to assess so far in IPL 2025, but there was plenty in it to suggest that Sunrisers Hyderabad intend to smash T20 batting records this season. What possessed Riyan Parag, the stand-in Rajasthan Royals captain, to put SRH into bat on a run-filled surface like Uppal only he – or whoever was behind the decision on Sunday – only he can explain, but you have to wonder what the logic was in putting the most destructive batting order in the IPL. 

The home team blasted their way to a total of 286/6 in 20 overs, just one shy of what they made in 2024, and hit an IPL record 46 boundaries on the way to a 44-run win over Rajasthan. In his comeback match for RR, Jofra Archer recorded the most expensive bowling figures in IPL history as he conceded 0-75 from four overs, while Fazalhaq Farooqi went for 49 in his three. 

This means that SRH now have four of the five highest IPL totals with three of them coming last year, and now yesterday’s effort. For a franchise that broke some record in the 2024 season, this last match has laid down a marker that other teams will have to follow. Last year’s runners-up boast a batting order that starts with Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, now includes an IPL centurion in Ishan Kishan, followed by Nitish Reddy and Heinrich Klaasen.

It’s too early to pass judgement on the debutant Aniket Verma or Abhinav Manohar, who was out first ball on Sunday, but there’s potential for SRH to get to 300 this season. And the reason for that is the belief inside this squad, backed by the license from the captain Pat Cummins to go hammer and tongs at the bowling. 

Kishan has won IPL trophies with Mumbai Indians, but the way he spoke of the freedom that he’s been given in his brief time at SRH speaks of what could prove to be the defining trait of this season. 

“The skipper, he’s giving a lot of freedom to everyone,” said Kishan during the innings break on Sunday. “Doesn’t matter if you get a lot of runs or if you get out early. Until and unless you’re doing everything for the team, it’s all fair. That’s the confidence every player in the team needs, so hats off to him and the management. Pat, he knows what’s there for the team and the coach is also talking about the same thing – ‘you have to go in and enjoy whatever your game-play is. You have to plan accordingly, just play your game and don’t be in a fear of getting out’”. 

Kishan’s arrival and the immediate impact he had with SRH as he smashed his first IPL century, off just 45 balls, makes this a deadlier lineup. Abhishek was out in the fourth over, but scored 24 off 11 balls at a strike-rate of 218. The score at the end of the six-over Powerplay was 94, with Head reaching his fifty off 21 deliveries. Albeit on a very flat track, this approach to batting inside the Powerplay shows why Sunrisers have to be feared. Kishan breezed to his own fifty, and got to his century in quick time with support from Reddy (30 off 15) and Klaasen (34 from 14). 

This is a team of fearless cricketers, and having Kishan – who was offloaded by Mumbai and bought by SRH for Rs 11.25 crore – buying into the team’s mentality immediately is an ominous sign. 

Before this match, the opening fixture of IPL 2025 saw another franchise emulate what SRH did last year. Chasing 175 against defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders, the three-time runners-up Royal Challengers Bengaluru rode on fifties to their openers Virat Kohli and Phil Salt to comfortably reach their target in 16.2 overs. 

Salt, who was released by KKR, used his inside knowledge of playing Varun Chakravarthy by welcoming his former team-mate into the attack by smacking him for 21 runs in one over inside the Powerplay. Kohli, in his 400th T20 match, swung Spencer Johnson for successive sixes. 

If more openers and batting lineups follow the SRH template this year, we could be witnessing a T20 revolution.