Sunrisers Hyderabad’s (SRH) bowling attack is facing heavy criticism in the ongoing IPL 2026 as their struggles continued in another high-scoring encounter against Punjab Kings (PBSK) on Saturday, April 12 at Mullanpur. Even after posting a massive total of 219/6, SRH could not defend it against PBKS.
This high-scoring game has once again exposed serious problems in Sunrisers Hyderabad’s bowling attack as they have fallen to sixth place in the IPL 2026 points table, having lost three of their four games so far in the tournament.
SRH bowling under fire after another run-fest goes in vain in IPL 2026
It should have been a one-sided game for SRH, but Punjab Kings comfortably chased down the target of 220 runs with seven balls to spare. The young duo of Harsh Dubey (1/38) and Shivang Kumar (3/33) tried to control the damage but the rest of the bowling line-up failed miserably.
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Jaydev Unadkat, Harshal Patel and Eshan Malinga ran out of wickets and lost so many runs. Nitish Kumar Reddy also bowled two overs and Abhishek also tried his luck but no one was successful. After witnessing another poor bowling show, Kris Srikkanth criticized SRH’s weak attack.
Srikkanth says Sunrisers Hyderabad need 500 runs to compete with this bowling attack
The former Indian chief selector noted that only the two young spinners are showing promise while the rest of the attack is struggling a lot in the ongoing IPL 2026. He pointed out that SRH’s bowling attack lacks quality and consistency, and said that they need to score 500 runs to win the games.
Kris Srikkanth said in a video on his YouTube channel: “They have no margin with their bowling. The opposition will chase even 300 against their bowling. Their two young spinners, Harsh Dubey and Shivang Kumar, are good. But their bowling starts and ends there. Eshan Malinga will be sent straight to Colombo with his bowling, but SRH is playing with it.”
The former World Cup winner further added, “Time is up for Jaydev Unadkat and Harshal Patel. SRH can only win if they get 500 points with this bowling attack. Nothing can be done with this bowling. It is not even at the level of the top division.”
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However, Srikkanth praised Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer who led his team from the front in this high-scoring match. Iyer played a match-winning knock of 69* runs off 33 balls to lead PBKS to a dominant victory over SRH in Mullanpur.
The former Indian captain added: “PBKS have a fantastic captain, one who shows a lot of responsibility. He just came in and easily won the game for them with his batting. They all play with a strike rate of over 200. It is impossible to beat them if they all play with this strike rate.”
Interestingly, SRH stand-in captain Ishan Kishan admitted that his team failed to deliver. He explained that the pitch was good to hit and that anything between 219 and 240 could have been a solid total, but they finished below his own expectations.
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