The major weakness of SRH is the absence of a finisher in their line-up. The middle-order too looked shaky in the last IPL in the UAE and that is where SRH would be banking on Williamson's vast experience.
Although Shankar is regarded highly as an all-rounder, the Tamil Nadu cricketer is yet to prove his mettle for SRH and that is something which would be a cause of concern for the team management.
Even though SRH has roped in Kedar Jadhav this year, it remains to be seen whether the Maharshtra all-rounder can prove his worth considering the fact that he is very much short of practice.
OPPORTUNITY:
Wriddhiman Saha if given a promotion in the batting order would look at it as an opportunity to show his range of strokes while Kedar Jadhav, whose international career as good as over could add that muscle which the SRH desperately require in the middle -order. This IPL will be a make-or-break one for Manish Pandey, who has already fallen in the pecking order as far as national team is concerned. Pandey would like to make a statement to national selectors and be in the mix.
THREATS:
SRH is heavily reliant on its top-order to provide a good start and God forbids if the likes of Warner, Bairstow, Pandey and Williamson fails for long, the pressure would shift to the team's middle and lower order, which includes the likes of Shankar, Holder and others.
On the bowling front too, SRH is over-dependent of Rashid to deliver the goods when the team needs.
Squad: David Warner (C), Kane Williamson, Virat Singh, Manish Pandey, Priyam Garg, Wriddhiman Saha, Jonny Bairstow, Jason Roy, Sreevats Goswami, Vijay Shankar, Mohammad Nabi, Kedar Jadhav, J Suchit, Jason Holder, Abhishek Sharma, Abdul Samad, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rashid Khan, T Natarajan, Sandeep Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed, Siddharth Kaul, Basil Thampi, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mujeeb ur Rahman.