The teams for each Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise are complete. If an injury doesn’t strike, there’ll be no changes in the squads. The trade window isn’t open either. But what if hypothetically it was? What one player would a team add? No one’s talking about bringing Virat Kohli or MS Dhoni to your team, but a tactical change that will strengthen not just your team but also the opposition as well. If it were up to me, an ideal change would be Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) bringing in Avesh Khan from the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in place of Ishan Kishan.
This trade strengthens both teams. Both SRH and LSG did their best in Jeddah. But you can’t always build a 10 out of 10 team. There is always an area where you lack or a player you miss out on. Some minor deficiencies are fine, but to win, you must assemble a well-rounded side. SRH knows this because they made the final last year based on it. The trade of Kishan and Avesh would cover the required bases for both teams.
Why SRH need Avesh Khan as cover for Shami
SRH already had Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Nitish Kumar Reddy, and Heinrich Klaasen. They further bolstered their batting by adding Ishan Kishan, Atharva Taide, and Abhinav Manohar. They have everything covered from aggressive openers to proven finishers. Reddy can even give a couple of overs and has shown great versatility with the bat, and Klaasen is the designated wicketkeeper; that’s why he can do well even without Kishan.
Kishan can’t bat outside of the top three, and he can’t open for SRH with Abhishek and Head up top. Reddy can come at 3, and Taide, Manohar, and Klaasen will follow him, in no particular order. The question is, do you need Kishan? You might say their batting isn’t long enough, but don’t forget that captain Pat Cummins can hit a long ball, and you can always bring an impact substitute as well.
Let’s talk about bowling. Apart from Cummins, they have two good pacers, Harshal Patel and Simarjeet Singh. The issue is the fitness and availability of Mohammed Shami. No one knows whether he’ll play in the IPL 2025 season. You can cover for Shami with Brydon Carse or Eshan Malinga, but ideally, you’d like to replace him with an Indian pacer, and that’s where Avesh Khan would fit in.
Ishan Kishan to fill LSG’s opener void
LSG has two makeshift openers, Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh. They can do the job, but especially in Markram’s case, you don’t know if that spot is certain. The rest of their batting, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant, Ayush Badoni, David Miller, and Abdul Samad, is great. It’s just the opening that’s an issue. Also, by not including Markram, they can use a foreign bowler in their XI. Of course, Ishan Kishan would open in LSG, what he wants to do but can’t do at SRH.
The reason why they can do without Avesh Khan is because they have Mohsin Khan, Mayank Yadav, and Akash Deep as their Indian pacers. You have Prince Yadav as well. Shamar Joseph, who’s also in the squad, can come in for him as well. That is why LSG won’t lose anything and will bring a proper opener by letting Avesh go for Kishan.
Squads
Lucknow Super Giants: Aiden Markram✈️, Nicholas Pooran✈️, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ayush Badoni, David Miller✈️, Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Mohsin Khan, Ravi Bishnoi, Mayank Yadav, Avesh Khan, Akash Deep, M. Siddharth, Aryan Juyal (wk), Himmat Singh, Digvesh Singh, Akash Singh, Shamar Joseph✈️, Prince Yadav, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Arshin Kulkarni, Matthew Breetzke✈️(wk)
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Ishan Kishan (wk), Harshal Patel, Rahul Chahar, Mohammed Shami, Adam Zampa ✈️, Atharva Taide, Abhinav Manohar, Simarjeet Singh, Zeeshan Ansari, Jaydev Unadkat, Brydon Carse ✈️, Kamindu Mendis✈️, Sachin Baby, Aniket Verma, Eshan Malinga ✈️, Heinrich Klaasen (wk)✈️, Pat Cummins (c)✈️, Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head ✈️, Nitish Kumar Reddy
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