Former India Test cricketer Wasim Jaffer felt Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Kane Williamson got a few things “wrong” on the tactical front in his team’s IPL 2022 campaign opener on March 29 night against the Rajasthan Royals.
The Sunrisers suffered a crushing defeat by 61 runs – a heavy dent on their NRR at the start of the tournament – after scoring only 149/7 in response to Royals’ daunting 210/6 on a flat batting surface in Pune.
They made multiple errors in their lines and lengths with the ball, failing to put the RR batting unit under sustained pressure, something that the opposition did in abundance through the second half where SRH were reduced to 37/5 at one stage.
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But beyond inapt skill-execution, Jaffer felt that Williamson’s captaincy and decision-making also let SRH down on the night. SRH’s batting order, especially, fell under Jaffer’s scrutiny, as he said the team’s two strong batting performers on the night – Aiden Markram (57*) and Washington Sundar (40) – should’ve batted higher up.
“I felt Kane Williamson got a lot of things wrong tactically and it is a very surprising thing to say as he is such a good captain.”
“Aiden Markram could have batted ahead of Nicolas Pooran and Pooran could have come at number 5. Washington Sundar batting at number 8, he could also have been pushed up the order.
You need to get these things right. But it is better for them to go wrong in the initial games rather than in later ones.”
Jaffer said on ESPNcricinfo’s show ‘T20 time out Live’.
Walking into bat at No.5 and No.8, respectively, the Markram-Sundar duo was SRH’s only shining light amidst the gloom of a horrible loss to the Royals.
Failing to make the playoffs last season, the team needed a good start to their new campaign. But an insipid performance came back to hurt them and resulted in a heavy loss.
SRH next play on April 4 at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai against new entrants Lucknow Super Giants.
