2 franchises that could play in IPL 2023 without a designated 'anchor' in the batting line-up

An 'anchor' is an important part of the batting line-up in the shorter formats. However, thanks to the modern era of T20 batting, at least in the shortest format, some teams do not have a specialist 'anchor' in the batting line-up. Especially with the Impact Rule set to come into the picture from the next season, we might not see any player donning this role again. A few teams, though, do not have an 'anchor' in their setup. That is actually a positive thing but when they will have to use someone in that role in challenging situations. On that not, in this article, we take a look at two franchises that could play in IPL 2023 without a designated 'anchor' in the batting line-up.

1) Sunrisers Hyderabad

With a top-order of Mayank Agarwal, Abhishek Sharma and Rahul Tripathi, SRH has an aggressive top-order. None of these players is known to be an 'anchor' in their playing careers till now. Even the men that follow - Glenn Phillips or Harry Brook are also top-end hitters. Hence, it will be interesting to see how the team plays when there are some early wickets. One option could be for Mayank to drop anchor or ask Washington Sundar to bat in the top-order.

2) Rajasthan Royals

RR is one of the franchises that could play in IPL 2023 without a designated 'anchor' in the batting line-up. Jos Buttler can be considered an anchor but he was fearless and took more risks in IPL 2022. With the batting order lengthening due to the addition of Jason Holder, Buttler will go for his shots this time around, too. Devdutt Padikkal is definitely an 'anchor' material but he cannot afford to play that way. As a left-hander, he must take on the spinners and RR might have already communicated the same to him. Rest, Sanju Samson, Riyan Parag and Shimron Hetmyer are proper T20 hitters and do not fall under this bracket.