The price Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) paid to England all-rounder Liam Livingston at the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 mini-auction, as per former Indian cricketer Sadagoppan Ramesh, would have been a shock to Livingston. This team recruited the right-handed hitter at INR 13 crore.
Livingstone has had an awful IPL 2025 campaign with Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), who are the IPL champions. He only made 1 half century in ten games with an average of 16 runs with a strike rate of 133.33. He was also lost to popularity by the team as he last played against England in March 2025.
“Even he would have been surprised by going for so many. Many franchises pick such cricketers, even after a bad season for them, with the assumption that they’ll return to form the following season. This is a double-edged sword,” said Ramesh on Star Sports.
According to Ramesh, SRH signed Livingstone with the hopes that he may win them a few IPL 2026 games by himself. With 340 games played, Livingstone is an accomplished T20 veteran. With an astounding strike rate of 145 and an average of 28, he has amassed almost 7,600 runs, including two hundreds and forty half-centuries. In T20 cricket, he has also taken 148 wickets with the ball at an economy rate of 8.48.
“They are trusting that he’ll win two to three matches singlehandedly. But he is a very inconsistent player. Today, there are many consistent players in T20 cricket. So to still bet on an inconsistent player is a big risk. Only time will tell if this is a smart move,” said Ramesh.
SRH will start their campaign with a match against RCB in the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on March 28. Ishan Kishan has been recruited to play as a stand-in captain in the first games when the regular captain Pat Cummins is unavailable because of an injury. His deputy will be Abhishek Sharma. The team based in Hyderabad had not achieved much success since their last success in the 2024 Indian Premier League, when they finished second.
