Pat is in good bowling form...: SRH assistant coach Helmot ahead of GT clash at home

The IPL campaign of SRH, last year's trailblazers, has started on an extremely poor note. After a hard-hitting win over Rajasthan Royals (RR), they have slipped down to the bottom of the points table with three losses, which consisted of batting performances way poorer than their firepower suggests. Also, their bowling has failed to click, with lead pacers Mohammed Shami and Cummins having got three wickets each in four matches at economy rates of 10.00 and 12.30, respectively. Also, pacer Harshal Patel has got four wickets at an economy of above nine.

Speaking ahead of the match in the pre-match presser, Helmot said, "I think Pat's in really good bowling form. It has been fairly unforgiving (for bowlers) in the venues that we have played at, and we are playing against some really good opposition, but I think as as a collective, being more precise with the ball is something that we are going to work on and look to develop because as we know out here in Hyderabad it is very unforgiving. You can just be off a fraction, um, and, and the ball can sail. So I think we are realistic, but also, you know, we have had some really good conversations about how best to bowl, what are our best deliveries against this opposition."

Helmot said that in conditions in states like Visakhapatnam and Kolkata, it is proven that teams can still make big scores.

"Obviously, we did not bat so well against Kolkata, but I think across, across the country, um, wickets are very good. It is just whether very good means 280 or very good means 180. But you know, we will all remember the days back when I first met you guys. 140 was a winning total. Many moons ago in 2013, whereas nowadays it seems, yeah, wickets are fairly flat. The scores have certainly incrementally increased and so that's certainly put greater pressure on bowling and fielding teams, but also for batters to assess what is a good score, how hard to go, and, and what sort of score you may need to make to get be a winning total."

The assistant coach also said that the pressure to touch the 300-run mark while batting is something that is not discussed internally.

"But we know that we have a quality batting unit. It has not quite worked out for us the last two matches, so we look forward to getting those sort of results that we did in the first match and a majority of the matches that we had here in Hyderabad last season. The mood in the camp is very good. It is always an advantage when you have such calm leaders in Daniel Vettori (head coach) and Pat Cummins. There have been lots of good, what I would call organic conversations between batters, bowlers, us as a fielding group, and looking at ways and investigating ways in which we can improve collectively and also individually," he added.

Squads:

Sunrisers Hyderabad Squad: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Kamindu Mendis, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Aniket Verma, Pat Cummins(c), Harshal Patel, Simarjeet Singh, Mohammed Shami, Zeeshan Ansari, Abhinav Manohar, Wiaan Mulder, Jaydev Unadkat, Rahul Chahar, Adam Zampa, Atharva Taide, Eshan Malinga, Sachin Baby

Gujarat Titans Squad: Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Jos Buttler(w), Sherfane Rutherford, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Arshad Khan, Rashid Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Ishant Sharma, Glenn Phillips, Anuj Rawat, Mahipal Lomror, Washington Sundar, Jayant Yadav, Karim Janat, Kulwant Khejroliya, Gerald Coetzee, Manav Suthar, Kumar Kushagra, Gurnoor Brar, Nishant Sindhu.