IPL 2025: How SRH can pull off a miracle and book their place in playoffs?

The 2016 Indian Premier League (IPL) champions, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), who missed their second IPL trophy by a whisker after going down against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in IPL 2024, are standing just one loss away from being officially eliminated from the IPL 2025 playoff race. Although the defending runner-ups are still mathematically alive in the tournament, they will have to pull off a miracle if they wish to finish in the top four of the points table. But how did SRH find themselves in this situation after a brilliant start to the season—and what must they do to book their place in the playoffs from this point onwards? Let’s take a look. 

 

 

SRH’s journey in IPL 2025 so far 

SRH started their IPL 2025 campaign against Rajasthan Royals (RR), where they posted the second-biggest score in IPL history (286) and won the game by 44 runs. However, their performance took a huge dip after that, and they lost their next four games to Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), Delhi Capitals (DC), Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Gujarat Titans (GT) by 5 wickets, 7 wickets, 80 runs and 7 wickets, respectively.

 

They bounced back to winning ways after securing an 8-wicket win over Punjab Kings (PBKS), but once again found themselves in trouble after losing to Mumbai Indians (MI) in back-to-back matches by 4 and 7 wickets, respectively.

 

They then beat Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by 8 wickets, but lost to GT in the very next match—missing out on the chance to secure 16 points, which is generally considered a safe total for playoff qualification in the IPL.

 

How can SRH still qualify for playoffs? 

While tough, it's still not impossible for the Orange Army to book their place in the playoffs. But to do that, they first need to win all their remaining matches—vs DC, KKR, RCB and LSG—and that too by huge margins, to not only finish with 14 points under their name but also have a competitive net run rate.

 

However, winning all matches will not be enough for SRH to break into the top four of the points table. They will also need KKR and LSG to lose one extra game each, DC to lose two more games aside from their match vs SRH, and PBKS to lose all their remaining games. Only then can SRH qualify for the playoffs.

 

What went wrong for SRH in IPL 2025? 

SRH adopted a full-on attacking approach in IPL 2024, which proved very successful as they consistently posted big totals and won matches. But one thing they overlooked was their lack of bowling depth. They scored big runs but also conceded big totals.

 

Fast forward to IPL 2025, and their bowling troubles continued, leaving them vulnerable from one end. On the other hand, their opening pair of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma lost consistency, and Heinrich Klaasen also failed to recreate his 2024 performance—leaving their batting front weak.

 

On top of all this, despite their losses, SRH refused to change their game approach and continued to counter-attack, no matter how many wickets they lost. While this worked in 2024, in 2025 they kept losing wickets and failed to post big totals as consistently as they did last year.

 

Now, SRH will need someone to anchor the innings for at least 10–15 overs, and the rest to go ballistic around him, if they wish to turn their fate in IPL 2025.