Ahead of the auction, SRH traded Shikhar Dhawan to Delhi Capitals in favour of Shahbaz Nadeem, Vijay Shankar and Abhishek Sharma. SRH retained 17 players and released nine players. On auction day (18 December 2018) SRH bought three new players; Jonny Bairstow, Martin Guptill and Wriddhiman Saha, the latter of which was bought back in the auction after initially being released. David Warner made a comeback to IPL on 24 March 2019 after he was banned by BCCI to participate in 2018 season due to Australian ball-tampering controversy. SRH decided to stay with Kane Williamson as captain and Bhuvneshwar Kumar as vice-captain. Before start of the season, Williamson was nursing an injury and Kumar led the team in the first game against Kolkata Knight Riders and from the third game till the sixth game. SRH ended the 2019 season with 6 wins and 9 losses. They lost against Delhi Capitals in the Eliminator at Dr. Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. David Warner won the orange cap in this season.