Ravichandran Ashwin After the 47-run defeat of Sunrisers Hyderabad, he was heavily criticized for his careless batting style. Rajasthan Royals In the IPL 2026 eliminator, it even suggested that the franchise management might need to take a tough call in this regard. Travis HeadThe future ofChasing a mammoth target of 244, SRH’s explosive batting line-up crumbled under pressure during a disastrous powerplay collapse. Jofra Archer And Nandre Burger tore through the top order as Hyderabad slipped to 57/4 inside the first five overs, effectively derailing the chase.Abhishek Sharma was out for a wicket in Archer’s opening over, while Ishan Kishan’s aggressive cameo of 33 off just 11 balls ended prematurely with what Ashwin called an unnecessary shot. Simran Ravichandran fell cheaply, before Archer dealt the biggest blow to the clean-bowling Travis Head with 17 off eight balls.Despite strong innings from Nitish Kumar Reddy (38 off 20) and Salil Arora (35 off 21), SRH never quite recovered from the early collapse and were eventually bundled out for 196 in 19.2 overs.Reacting to the defeat on his YT channel ‘Ash Ki Baat’, Ashwin criticized SRH’s lack of shot selection and game awareness in such a high-pressure knockout clash.“I think SRH could have won this match quite easily. When they had already scored 32-34 runs in two overs and almost 50 runs in the first three overs, Ishan Kishan’s shot was completely unnecessary. He threw away his wicket,” Ashwin said.He added that there was no point in playing such a shot in such a big match. Ashwin was particularly critical of Travis Head’s season and hinted that the SRH management should reassess his role moving forward.“Travis Head has not performed at all this season. The management definitely needs to think about Travis Head. He should have played more responsibly. There was no point in getting out by playing such a poor shot,” Ashwin added.The veteran spinner felt that SRH still had a realistic chance with Nitish Kumar Ready at the crease, but the continued loss of wickets made a massive chase impossible.“SRH were in the match till the 14th over when Nitish Kumar was ready to bat. But if you keep losing so many wickets, you can’t chase such a big total.“If SRH had shown a bit more game awareness and played with a calm mind, they could have won this match comfortably.
