Former Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) mentor Kris Srikkanth believes that the franchise fumbled big time by spending big on Liam Livingstone as they could have gotten him for a lot cheaper. The England all-rounder proved to be one of the most expensive buys of the day and was signed by SRH for a massive fee of INR 13 crore. He was also the franchise's costliest buy of the auction with only Jack Edwards (INR 3 crore) and Salil Arora (INR 1.5 crore) being the other two signings that crossed the 1-crore mark.
SRH outbid LSG for Livingstone
Livingstone didn't find any bidders in the opening round and went unsold, but it was in the accelerated round where multiple franchises showed interest in him. SRH eventually went on to outbid the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) to acquire Livingstone. Srikkanth wasn't impressed with their strategy and remarked that they should have bid for the player in the opening round when no team showed interest in him.
"Everyone let go of Livingstone at base price. If you had already decided to go for him, you could have pocketed him for 2 crores itself. Their batting lineup is great, but who'll bowl the 20 overs for them? Do SRH really need a player like Livingstone?" Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel.
Srikkanth on SRH not buying Shami's replacement
Srikkanth also slammed the Hyderabad-based franchise for not signing a proper replacement for Mohammed Shami, whom they had traded to LSG ahead of the auction. The former India cricketer further said that they could have planned in a much better way for the auction.
"They let go of Shami. Who's the replacement for Shami? They could have planned it better, but they already had a good side. Yet, we all say good side, but they didn't qualify last year. They were down in the dumps like CSK last year," Srikkanth added.
Sunrisers Hyderabad's squad for IPL 2026: Pat Cummins (c), Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, R. Smaran, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Kamindu Mendis, Harshal Patel, Brydon Carse, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga, Zeeshan Ansari, Salil Arora, Shivang Kumar, Sakib Hussain, Onkar Tarmale, Krains Fuletra, Praful Hinge, Amit Kumar, Shivam Mavi, Liam Livingstone, Jack Edwards..