“Do SRH really need a player like him?” - Ex-Indian selector slams SRH’s auction strategy

Former Indian chief selector Kris Srikkanth has slammed the Sunrisers Hyderabad’s strategy in the IPL 2026 mini-auction, scheduled to be played on Tuesday, December 16, in Abu Dhabi. Interestingly, despite having an exceptional batting line-up, they splurged a whopping 13 crore for Liam Livingstone.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Srikkanth asserted that there was no need for SRH to take Livingstone, adding that the Hyderabad-based franchise was down in the dumps like the Chennai Super Kings last year.

"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? 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,” Kris Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel.

Furthermore, Srikkanth also spoke on the Gujarat Titans’ strategy, stating that they didn’t address their middle-order issues at the mini-auction. Moreover, he felt that someone like Livingstone should’ve made it to the Titans squad.

"They (GT) did not address their middle-order issues at all. Last season they qualified only because of their top three. They should have also targeted specific players like KKR for covering their middle-order issues. Are there no good middle-order batters at all around the world? Actually, Livingstone would have been an ideal fit for them," he concluded.

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) full squad

Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, Brydon Carse*, Eshan Malinga*, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Heinrich Klaasen*, Ishan Kishan, Jaydev Unadkat, Kamindu Mendis*, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Pat Cummins*, Smaran Ravichandaran, Travis Head*, Zeeshan Ansari, Liam Livingstone*, Jack Edwards*, Salil Arora, Shivam Mavi, Krains Fuletra, Praful Hinge, Amit Kumar, Onkar Tarmale, Sakib Hussain, Shivang Kumar.

Gujarat Titans (GT) full squad

Anuj Rawat, Glenn Phillips*, Gurnoor Singh Brar, Ishant Sharma, Jayant Yadav, Jos Buttler*, Kagiso Rabada*, Kumar Kushagra, Manav Suthar, Mohammad Siraj, Mohd. Arshad Khan, Nishant Sindhu, Prasidh Krishna, R. Sai Kishore, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan*, Sai Sudharsan, Shahrukh Khan, Shubman Gill, Washington Sundar, Jason Holder*, Tom Banton*, Ashok Sharma, Luke Wood*, Prithviraj Yarra.

*denotes overseas player.

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