Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) mentor VVS Laxman came out on Saturday and reiterated the need for Sunrisers Hyderabad middle order to stand up for the team. He believes faith in the team’s middle-order but admitted that they need to perform better.
SRH lost to Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) by 15 runs in their last match in the Indian Premier League.
Speaking to the media about it. VVS said, “I think they (middle-order batsmen) can be better but the potential is there. Right from the start of the auction we’ve been saying that there’s a lot of potential in our middle order and that’s something which we really wanted to strengthen. It was good that Manish Pandey got a half-century (48), Kane Williamson is in good nick, Yusuf Pathan won us the game against Mumbai in partnership with Deepak Hooda and in Kolkata. Deepak Hooda played a fantastic knock to win us the game against Mumbai. It’s just about everyone coming together to perform to their potential and we expect a lot from the middle-order,”
Laxman further pointed that the team has been getting off to fine starts because of their openers. He said,“In the four matches we played, in the last match we didn’t use the power play well. Info, run, lately, Shikhar (Dhawan) got injured (at the) start of the innings. But if you see the previous three games, our opening batsmen gave a very good start. We had 60 or 65 runs in the games, twice we had 50 runs. Ideally, if you have close to 45-50 in six overs without losing many wickets then maybe one, then you’ve used the power play properly. I don’t think that power play is a problem for us,”
SRH lost their last game to perhaps one really exceptional innings from Chris Gayle. VVS praised Gayle's 100 off 60 balls and said,
“Batting was too good. When Chris Gayle is in that kind of form, irrespective of who’s bowling, his hitting power was on display. As far as the bowlers are concerned and as long as they execute and bowl to their plan they should be happy. The end result or how many runs they give should not matter. How well he executes the plan and bowls to a batsman is all that matters,”
