SRH vs GL

Lore & Background

Gujarat Lions arrived in 2016 as IPL's newest franchise, carrying the weight of a state that had long been cricket-mad but franchise-less. Their red-and-gold identity, anchored by the thunderous presence of Chris Gayle in that inaugural season, gave Ahmedabad a team to rally behind at the sprawling Motera ground. For Hyderabad fans, the arrival of a well-funded Western rival felt like a challenge to Telangana's hard-won cricketing identity—SRH had just claimed their first IPL crown in 2016, and the orange army wanted to be left alone to savor it.

The rivalry's brevity is its defining tragedy. Gujarat never found a winning formula across their three campaigns, finishing in the lower half of the league table each year before being delisted after 2018. For SRH supporters, the Gujarat fixture became a reliable points-pick, a chance to flex Telangana's superior depth. For the smaller Gujarat fanbase, every loss at Motera or in Hyderabad felt like a reminder that their project was always fighting an uphill battle against established IPL powerhouses.

What the rivalry lacked in longevity, it made up for in personality. Hyderabad's brand was loud, celebratory, and unapologetically South Indian in its swagger—think the 'Jai Ho' chants and the orange wave. Gujarat's identity was more formal, more aspirational, rooted in the state's industrial pride. The two never developed the personal, player-on-player feuds that define longer rivalries, but the regional pride underneath—Telangana versus Gujarat, Deccan versus the Western coast—gave every ball a quiet political charge that neutral stats never capture.

In Their Own Story

The floodlights at Motera hummed to life on a humid April evening, 2017. The Gujarat crowd—thousands of them in red and gold, scarves draped over shoulders—roared as the Gujarat Lions walked out to face the orange wave from Hyderabad. In the SRH dugout, the energy was different: a season of confidence, a title already etched into the 2016 memory, a roster that felt like a family. The bowler from Hyderabad stepped to his mark, the Gujarat batsman set his guard, and for two hundred and twenty overs the only language that mattered was the crack of willow on leather and the thunder of two cities, 900 kilometres apart, screaming at the same oval of green. By the final over, the scoreboard told the story, but the fans in both stands had already won—their cities, their colours, their pride. The Gujarat Lions would not be here in 2019. But tonight, in this one night, the rivalry was everything.

Reader's Guide

Sunrisers Hyderabad (orange and black, Hyderabad, Telangana) vs Gujarat Lions (red and gold, Ahmedabad, Gujarat).

Why it has teeth: This is a rivalry of geography and identity as much as cricket. Hyderabad and Ahmedabad are both major metropolitan cities with passionate, vocal fanbases, and the 2016–2018 window pitted a newly crowned IPL champion against a well-funded newcomer trying to prove it belonged. The personality clash is built in: SRH's loud, celebratory, almost chaotic South Indian swagger versus Gujarat's more structured, industrial-pride identity. Every league meeting felt like a provincial pride test—Telangana versus Gujarat—layered on top of the on-field contest.

Defining encounters: The 2016 season opener era, when SRH were still riding their title charge and Gujarat were proving they could compete at the top end; the 2017 league clashes where SRH's depth and bowling attack made the Gujarat chase feel increasingly futile; and the 2018 meetings, which carried the quiet poignancy of knowing it was the last season Gujarat Lions would ever play. For a fan wiki, the 2018 fixture is the bittersweet one—the final chapter of a rivalry that never got the chance to become a decade-long war.

This is not SRH's greatest rivalry. But for three years, if you were in Hyderabad or Ahmedabad, it was *your* rivalry, and it mattered.

Did You Know?

• Gujarat Lions existed for only three IPL seasons (2016–2018) before being delisted, making the SRH-vs-GL rivalry the shortest major franchise rivalry in IPL history.
• SRH won the IPL title in 2016, their first season as a franchise, the same year Gujarat Lions made their debut—meaning the rivalry was born in the shadow of a coronation.
• Gujarat's home ground, Motera Stadium (later renamed Narendra Modi Stadium), is the largest cricket stadium in the world by capacity, giving the GL-SRH fixture a uniquely massive stage.
• After Gujarat Lions were delisted post-2018, no IPL franchise has represented the state of Gujarat, leaving the rivalry permanently frozen in time.