SRH’s Liam Livingstone reveals the dark reality behind IPL team selections

Senior England all-rounder Liam Livingstone recently shared an important update on how IPL franchise ownership groups influence squad selection in the marquee tournament. He secured a massive INR 13 crore contract with Sunrisers Hyderabad for the 2026 season. For him, Lucknow Super Giants, Gujarat Titans, and Sunrisers Hyderabad were interested in the auction, with the Orange Army initially acquiring him. However, he didn’t get too many chances in the playing XI. Recently, in a podcast, he has disclosed players' attitudes based on whether or not they will be playing that season. 

"I think there are like three ways of the IPL. You are locked in and everything kind of set out for you. There's like a fringe: you may or may not play. And your thoughts are, 'If I play, this is how it's going to go,” Livingstone said, speaking on the Overlap Cricket Podcast. 

Liam Livingstone got the opportunity to feature in only 2 matches in the IPL 2026. His cricket scores were 1 & 14. After this, he didn’t get a chance in the SRH playing in the rest of the season. For SRH, Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen, Pat Cummins and Eshan Malinga were the overseas players who played most of the season. Even at the start of the season, when Pat Cummins missed the first half due to injury, Klaasen did not get many opportunities. He mentioned having a conversation with Daniel Vettori regarding his place in the playing XI at a time when SRH was fielding only three overseas players.

“And like me, this year, when I went there we got a lad in the auction that Mumbai Indians really wanted. We had more money, so we ended up getting him. The owners loved him. So he was locked in to play for us. When we didn't have Cummins, we were playing only three overseas (players). So I asked Dan (Vettori), why we are playing only three overseas? He was like, 'the owners love this lad. When Cummins comes back in we are not going to change our thing'. Which is great. I knew that I was not going to play unless somebody got injured. So then it's a completely different mindset when you know, you are not going to play,” he added. 

Sunrisers Hyderabad had a magnificent season. The team won 9 out of 14 matches and qualified for the playoffs. However, due to an inferior Net Run Rate (NRR) compared to RCB and GT, SRH finished in third place and had to play the Eliminator, where they suffered a defeat against Rajasthan Royals.