They can win only if they score 500: SRH's bowling attack slammed after PBKS trouncing

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, in Mullanpur. Even after putting up a massive total of 219/6, SRH failed to defend it against PBKS.

This high-scoring game has exposed serious issues in Sunrisers Hyderabad’s bowling attack once again as they slipped to sixth spot on the IPL 2026 points table, having now lost three of their four games so far in the tournament.

SRH bowling under fire after another run-fest went in vein in IPL 2026

It should have been a one-sided game for the SRH, but the Punjab Kings chased down the 220-run target comfortably with seven balls to spare. The young spin duo of Harsh Dubey (1/38) and Shivang Kumar (3/33) tried to control the damage, but the rest of the bowling lineup failed miserably.

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Jaydev Unadkat, Harshal Patel, and Eshan Malinga all went wicketless and leaked so many runs. Nitish Kumar Reddy also bowled two overs, and Abhishek also tried his hand, but nobody got success. After witnessing another poor bowling show, Kris Srikkanth slammed the SRH’s weak attack.

Srikkanth says Sunrisers Hyderabad need 500 runs to compete with this bowling attack

The former Indian chief selector pointed out that only the two young spinners are showing some promise, while the rest of the attack is struggling badly in the ongoing IPL 2026. He noted that SRH’s bowling attack lacks quality and consistency, saying they need to score 500 runs to win the games.

Kris Srikkanth said in a video on his YouTube channel, "They have no scope with their bowling. The opposition will chase down 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 get smashed straight to Colombo with his bowling, yet SRH is playing him.”

The former World Cup winner further added, “It’s time over for Jaydev Unadkat and Harshal Patel. SRH can win only if they score 500 with this bowling attack. You can’t do anything with this bowling. It’s not even up to the level of the first division.”

Fantastic Captain: Kris Srikkanth lauds Shreyas Iyer’s match-winning knock

However, Srikkanth lauded 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 take PBKS to a dominant win over SRH in Mullanpur.

The former Indian captain added, “PBKS has a fantastic captain, one that shows a lot of responsibility. He just came in and easily won the game for them with his batting. Everyone is playing at a 200+ strike rate. It is impossible to beat them if they all play at this strike rate.”

Interestingly, SRH stand-in skipper Ishan Kishan admitted that his team fell short in execution. He explained that the pitch was good for batting and anything around 219–240 could have been a strong total, but they ended up short of their own expectations.

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