SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) began their IPL 2021 campaign with a 10-run loss to Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday night. SRH's fast bowlers were taken to the cleaners as Nitish Rana starred with a 56-ball 80 that helped KKR post 187/6. SunRisers got off to a nightmare start but half-centuries from Manish Pandey and Jonny Bairstow pushed them closer to the target but couldn't get them over the line. There were some strange decisions from the SRH team management during the course of the match, but the one which irked fans the most was the decision to leave out New Zealand superstar Kane Williamson.
Williamson was seen warming the bench at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai with SRH going un with David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi as their four overseas players.
Fans were clearly unhappy with decision to leave out Williamson and took to Twitter to express their disappointment.
SRH also decided to open with Wriddhiman Saha and Warner, with Bairstow pushed down to two-down.
Another decision that drew some flak was when Vijay Shankar came into bat ahead of Abdul Samad with quick runs being the need of the hour for SRH. Shankar was dismissed for 11 off 7 balls while Samad blasted an unbeaten 19 off eight balls.
Williamson had captained SRH in 2018 in the absence of Warner. The New Zealander produced some stunning batting performances that season, ammassing 735 runs in 17 matches at an average of 52.50 and a strike-rate of 142.44.
The next season he played just nine matches, scoring 156 runs.
In the 2020 season in the UAE, Williamson intially was left out but went on to play 12 matches for SRH, scoring 317 runs at an average of 45.28 and a strike rate of 133.75.
SRH will next play Royal Challengers Bangalore in Chennai on Wednesday.