Former Indian fast bowler Zaheer Khan questioned Sunrisers Hyderabad’s top-order performance after the franchise suffered a crushing 82-run loss against Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Tuesday in the ongoing IPL 2026.

Travis Head was dismissed without troubling the scorers whereas Abhishek Sharma could only manage six runs. Ishan Kishan was caught behind by Josh Buttler after he scored 11 runs. Thus, SRH were left reeling at 23-3 and were soon reduced to 32-4 after Smaran Ravichandran was dismissed after scoring nine runs.

Khan said SRH’s top order didn’t lose their wickets because of the pitch but due to their shot selection.

“We have seen SRH faltering like this in the last season as well, when the conditions do not go in their favor a bit, they seem to be in trouble. Today, we saw that aspect once again from SRH. Here, the top order failed with their adaptability,” he said on Cricbuzz.

“If you look at the first three wickets, you cannot say it happened because of the pitch, that was in your hands. SRH were thinking that they will attack like usual, score 70-75 runs in the powerplay, and then GT would be out of the game completely. When that backfires, you get to see this,” he added.

However, despite the crushing loss against GT, former Indian pacer Mohit Sharma predicted that SRH will continue to back their aggressive batting approach.

“You can say that the shot selection was wrong, but if you look at the mindset of their team, they will look to chase down a 166-run target in 13 overs. They have themselves said in the past that they go for 150, and do not believe in 170-odd scores. So, if they are discussing that their shot selection was wrong or questioning their approach, then there might be something wrong from SRH’s point of view. But, if they accept that they got all out for 86 while sticking to their approach, then it is fine,” Mohit Sharma said.

Sunrisers Hyderabad will next take on Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, on Monday.