Tom Moody‘s second stint as head coach at Sunrisers Hyderabad is over. Both parties decided to part ways mutually. There is no confirmation yet on who could replace Moody, but ESPNcricinfo understands former West Indies captain
Brian Lara, who was the strategic advisor and batting coach with Sunrisers in the 2022 season, could be a frontrunner.
It is learned that both Moody and Sunrisers decided to not extend his contract. Moody was recently appointed
director of cricket at Desert Vipers, one of the six franchises in the ILT20, which is scheduled to begin in the UAE in January 2023.
Moody had returned to Sunrisers in 2021 as director of cricket with fellow Australian
Trevor Bayliss as head coach. Once Bayliss left after a dismal 2021 season, in which Sunrisers finished last with just three wins, the franchise
appointed Moody as head coach, the second time he had held the post. In his highly successful first stint, between 2013 and 2019, Moody had helped Sunrisers reach the playoffs five times and win the IPL in 2016.
Moody’s second stint, though, was forgettable, as Sunrisers were the worst-performing team in the IPL (ranked on wins). In 28 matches, they had nine wins, 18 defeats and one tie. In 2022, Sunrisers finished eighth in the 10-team tournament, with six wins and eight defeats. Moody would have been disappointed considering Sunrisers had assembled a well-balanced squad at the auction, before which they had retained three players: their captain Kane Williamson and the Indian pair of Umran Malik and Abdul Samad. In the first half of the season, Williamson got lucky at the toss, which played a big role in Sunrisers winning five matches in a row. However, they slid down the points table just as fast with five consecutive defeats. Williamson’s poor batting form coupled with injuries to two key Indian players – T Natarajan and Washington Sundar – left Sunrisers frustrated.
Those two injuries came immediately after a
defeat against Gujarat Titans, which Moody said triggered “negative momentum” from which his team could never recover. “We were small margins away from being in a different position on the table and that could’ve easily been in the top 4,” Moody said on May 22, after Sunrisers ended their season with another defeat.
