Bowling lineups have work cut out: SRH asst coach on Travishek & Vaibhav-Jaiswal

Sunrisers Hyderabad had finished at 18 points after the 14 games in the league stage and were tied for points with Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Gujarat Titans but finished third with the other two sides having a better net run-rate. While Abhishek Sharma has scored his runs at a strike rate of 206.22, Travis head has scored his runs at a strike rate of 168.66. When asked about Head having a mediocre season this IPL, Franklin shared how the team has the belief in the Australian opener and how the coaching group looks at the opening partnership instead of individual scores.

“From his individual form or scores, whatever you want to put it, we look at the partnership. We look at the way that Head (Travis) and Abhishek (Sharma) put pressure back on opposition bowling groups. I think he has around 400 runs, which is a pretty good IPL. Obviously the other three out of top four batters for us have had a prolific season. But the partnership between Abhi (Abhishek) and Travis (Head) is as dynamic as well as destructive visuals you will see and have seen for the last two or three years in the IPL. So tomorrow’s another opportunity for Abhi (Abhishek) and Travis (Head) to go and stamp their mark on the game and there’s no doubt about Travis’s ability or destructing in terms of being able to play a match winning role for us. So we’ve got no doubt about that as a group,” said Franklin.

All-rounder Nitish Reddy, who had scored 182 runs and taken two wickets last season, has so far scored 264 runs at an average of 29.33 apart from taking seven wickets at an average of 44.43 in 13 matches this IPL. Franklin also spoke about how Reddy has shown improvement from the last season and how his contribution to the team has been immense.

“Nitish (Reddy) probably took a lot of learnings from IPL 2025 and I think form wise, he probably didn’t start exactly how he wanted to. Obviously, there might have been a bit more expectation with him having just recently been involved with India. And I think he would have taken a lot of learnings from last year’s IPL. So to come into this year, he’s done quite a bit of work on his bowling. He looked as confident as ever with the bat. In the first couple of games he got some validation on that prep work in terms of getting a couple of little cameo scores and partnerships. His role has obviously been slightly deeper this year opposed to last year as well, sort of more coming in with maybe, say, six or seven over to go at number five or a number six, and he’s played some unbelievable cameos for us in finishing off the innings. Bowling wise, he has been utilised opening the bowling, has been utilised in the middle and depending on what we foresee. His contribution this year has-been immense,” shared the coach.

Nitin Sharma is an Assistant Editor with the sports team of The Indian Express. Based out of Chandigarh, Nitin works with the print sports desk while also breaking news stories for the online sports team. A Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award recipient for the year 2017 for his story ‘Harmans of Moga’, Nitin has also been a three-time recipient of the UNFPA-supported Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity for the years 2022, 2023 and 2024 respectively. His latest Laadli Award, in November 2025, came for an article on Deepthi Jeevanji, who won India’s first gold medal at the World Athletics Para Championship and was taunted for her unusual features as a child. Nitin mainly covers Olympics sports disciplines with his main interests in shooting, boxing, wrestling, athletics and much more. The last 17 years with The Indian Express has seen him unearthing stories across India from as far as Andaman and Nicobar to the North East. Nitin also covers cricket apart from women’s cricket with a keen interest. Nitin has covered events like the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2011 ODI World Cup, 2016 T20 World Cup and the 2017 AIBA World Youth Boxing Championships. An alumnus of School of Communication Studies, Panjab University, from where he completed his Masters in Mass Communications degree, Nitin has been an avid quizzer too. A Guru Nanak Dev University Colour holder, Nitin’s interest in quizzing began in the town of Talwara Township, a small town near the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border. When not reporting, Nitin's interests lie in discovering new treks in the mountains or spending time near the river Beas at his hometown. ... Read More

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