Sunrisers Hyderabad is an Indian Premier League team based out of Hyderabad. The team was known as Deccan Chargers in the initial years from 2008 to 2012. DC, as it was called, had a relatively quiet run and achieved success and failures in the four years it remained as a team.
In 2012, Deccan Chargers was put up for sale by its owners. In September of 2011, the team was permanently banned by the IPL governing council, which terminated the contract of the Chargers for breaching its contract terms.
Later that year, the Sun TV Network of south India won the bid for the Hyderabad-based franchise. The new team was renamed as Sunrisers Hyderabad.
How It All Began
Deccan Chargers was initially led by ‘icon player’ VVS Laxman in the first edition of the tournament, with former Indian middle-order batsman Robin Singh as the head coach. Even though the team was tipped to win the title in 2008 by bookies, it finished the league stage at the bottom of the table, winning just two matches that season.
Despair And Victory Follows
Come 2009 and Deccan Chargers decided to change the coaching set up of the team as well as the captain. While Laxman was replaced by Aussie Adam Gilchrist as the captain, Robin Singh was shunted out of the team and another Aussie, former middle-order batsman, Darren Lehmann was appointed as the head coach.
Fortunes changed for the team, and from coming last in the previous edition, Deccan Chargers went on to win the finals of the 2009 IPL at South Africa’s Johannesburg.
The 2010 season for Deccan Chargers was a bitter-sweet ordeal for the team, and although they qualified for the knock-out rounds, they were defeated by Chennai Super Kings in the semi-finals and thereafter by Royal Challengers Bangalore in the third-place playoff match.
Fluctuating Fortunes
There weren’t any major changes in the Deccan Chargers set up for the next season (2011). While Darren Lehmann remained as coach, Gilchrist was replaced by Kumar Sangakkara as the captain of the team. DC’s poor run of form, however, continued and the team finished the league stage in the seventh position, winning six matches and losing eight.
The year 2012 was the last year when the team was known as Deccan Chargers. Darren Lehmann was retained as the coach and Sanga continued captaining the side. However, there wasn’t much improvement in DC’s performance as the team finished eight out of nine teams in the league, winning just four matches the entire season, while one game was washed out.
A Fresh Start
It was a new start for the team in 2013 as BCCI terminated DC’s contract and put the franchise for auction. Sun TV Network purchased the team and renamed in Sunrisers Hyderabad.
SRH also got a new coach for the 2013 season, with former Australian cricketer Tom Moody being given the charge of coaching the team. Moody, who stood tall at 1.98 meters, brought in a wealth of experience to the Hyderabad-based team having coached a number of teams in Australia, including Kings XI Punjab in the inaugural edition of the league.
Golden Years
Over the course of 2013-2019, under Moody as the coach, Sunrisers Hyderabad reached the knock-out rounds five times, apart from winning the championship in 2016.
For the 2013 season, however, SRH could only manage a fourth spot in the league table and lost out to Rajasthan Royal in the eliminator match. Moody was deputed by former Pakistani express-pacer Waqar Younis, who was the bowling coach of the team and Kris Srikanth and VVS Laxman as mentors to guide the players.
Although there was a change in captaincy at SRH for the 2014 IPL season, with Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan replacing Kumar Sangakkara, Tom Moody remained as the SRH coach. The Sun TV-owned franchise, however, could only finish fifth in the league standings, missing out on a knock-out spot on net run rate.
The year 2015 wasn’t much special for the team, as it missed out on another knock-out round, this time finishing sixth in the standings. Although Moody remained the coach, the captaincy changed hands with Dhawan being replaced by David Warner, the hard-hitting Aussie opener. There were a few changes for the coaching staff at SRH as Waqar Younis was replaced by Muttiah Muralitharan as the bowling coach.
Something Special
The big year, however, for Sunrisers Hyderabad came in 2016 when the David Warner-led side won the IPL defeating Royal Challengers Bangalore in the finals at Chinnaswamy Stadium. The coaching staff remained the same for the year, with Tom Moody being the head coach, and being assisted by Muralitharan as the bowling coach and Laxman being the mentor for the team.
SRH qualified for the knock-out rounds in the next years, including being the runners-up in the 2018 season. The first under Warner, and the next two under New Zealander Kane Williamson. Moody remained the coach of the team till 2020.
A New Era
Before the start of the 2021 IPL season, SRH appointed Trevor Bayliss as their coach, while Moody was elevated as the director of cricket of the team. Bayliss came in to the team on the back of winning the world cup with England in 2019. Bayliss was also KKR’s most successful coach, winning the tournament twice — in 2012 and 2014 — under Gautam Gambhir’s captaincy
And while Laxman and Muralitharan retained their position in the coaching set up, Biju George was appointed as the fielding coach of the team. George has, in the past, worked with the Indian Women’s cricket team.
Also Read: Who is the Owner of SRH in IPL 2022?
