Amit Mishra feels Livingstone's leg spin combined with all-round skill makes him a "good buy" for SRH

New Delhi [India], December 23 (ANI): Former Indian cricketer Amit Mishra hailed Sunrisers Hyderabad's (SRH) move to pick up explosive England all-rounder Liam Livingstone for Rs 13 crores ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026, pointing out how valuable his leg-spin bowling would be and how much the Uppal Stadium pitch would be conducive to his style of batting.
While Australian all-rounder Cameron Green made headlines for his 25.20 crore rupees move to three-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), another overseas star for whom the franchise broke the bank was Livingstone, who had a great The Hundred and Vitality Blast tournament following his underwhelming performances in Royal Challengers Bengaluru's (RCB) maiden title win.
Speaking to ANI, Mishra, who represented SRH for two seasons in 2013 and 2014, taking 28 wickets in 27 matches, said, "He can bat, he can bowl some good leg spin, which is a great wicket-taking option and also is a very good fielder. He has that quality in his bowling. Also, besides his leg-spin, he can also bowl a little bit of offspin, so that adds to what he offers as a batter and fielder. I think he is a good buy. Also, his batting would be suitable for Hyderabad's wicket."
In the IPL, Livingstone has scored 1,051 runs in 49 matches for Rajasthan Royals (RR), Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at a strike rate of over 158, with seven half-centuries, while also taking 13 wickets.
Though he was part of RCB's title-winning campaign last season, he scored 112 runs in eight matches. He arrives on the back of a strong Hundred season for Birmingham Phoenix, where he scored 241 runs at an average of 40.16 and took seven wickets, and an impressive Vitality Blast for Lancashire, amassing 260 runs at an average of 52 and a strike rate above 176, along with six wickets.
He also hailed Hyderabad for their outing at the auction, saying that they have "fulfilled all their requirements", having got Punjab's hard-hitting wicketkeeping batter Salil Arora, Australia's young all-rounder Jack Edwards and Indian pacer Shivam Mavi besides other buys, which were relatively lesser-known, uncapped Indian players.
Speaking on Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), a team which he represented later in his career during the 2023 and 2024 seasons, Amit pointed out that they could have got an English fast bowler or another batter to strengthen their team, pointing out how they have mainly an all-Indian fast bowling attack with Mohammed Shami, Mayank Yadav, Naman Tiwari, Arjun Tendulkar, Mohsin Khan and Prince Yadav, with South African Anrich Nortje as their sole overseas fast bowler, who they fetched during the auction for Rs two crores.
"I think LSG could have added a good English fast bowler, who would give them two overs in the powerplay and in death and also become a wicket-taking option during the middle-overs. They mainly have Indian fast bowlers. Also, I think they could have added one more batter," he added.
Sunrisers Hyderabad Full Squad: Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, Brydon Carse, Eshan Malinga, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Heinrich Klaasen, Ishan Kishan, Jaydev Unadkat, Kamindu Mendis, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Pat Cummins, Smaran Ravichandaran, Travis Head, Zeeshan Ansari, Salil Arora (Rs 1.50 Cr), Shivang Kumar (Rs 30 lakh), Liam Livingstone (Rs 13 Cr), Jack Edwards (Rs 3 Cr), Amit Kumar (Rs30 lakh), Krains Fuletra (Rs 30 lakh), Sakib Hussain (Rs 30 lakh), Onkar Tarmale (Rs 30 lakh), Praful Hinge (Rs 30 lakh), Shivam Mavi (Rs 75 lakh)
Lucknow Super Giants Full squad: Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Ayush Badoni, Abdul Samad, Avesh Khan, Mohammed Shami, Mayank Yadav, Digvesh Rathi, Akash Singh, Arjun Tendulkar, Arshin Kulkarni, Himmat Singh, M Siddharth, Matthew Breetzke, Mohsin Khan, Prince Yadav, Shahbaz Ahmed, Josh Inglis (Rs 8.5 Crore), Mukul Choudhary (Rs 2.6 Crore), Akshat Raghuwanshi (Rs 2.2 Crore), Wanindu Hasaranga (Rs 2 Crore), Anrich Nortje (Rs 2 Crore), Naman Tiwari (Rs 1 Crore). (ANI)