Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach Tom Moody was delighted to see their opener Abhishek Sharma play a match-winning knock opening the innings in yesterday’s Indian Premier League encounter against Chennai Super Kings. Contrary to all the opinions, Hyderabad stuck to their plans despite the left-hander’s failure in the first two matches and their decision reaped dividends.
Changes at the top of the order wasn’t much on the minds of the SRH management, especially Moody. After the match, the Australian stated the team management recognised at the mega auction that Sharma would be opening the innings for them.
“We recognised right at the beginning of the tournament and even at the auction that Abhishek was going to be an important player for us at the top of the order,”
he said after the match.
Abhishek is not new to playing at the top of the order, having performed the role of an opener for Punjab in List A fixtures and batting at three in the previous edition of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Expectedly, questions were raised after his twin failures, but SRH’s decision to stick with him paid off against the Super Kings.
Together with skipper Kane Williamson, he added 89 runs in 12.1 overs, with the New Zealander playing second fiddle. Abhishek took charge right from the word go and made sure his team registered its first points of the season. He scored 75 runs off 50 deliveries and deserved to win the Player of the Match award.
Moody lauded the southpaw for his innings and also stated that the knock was good for his confidence. The coach is now hoping for more consistent scores from Sharma in the latter stages of the tournament.
The head coach stressed that Abhishek, an all-rounder by trait, had shown impressive signs in the nets and that he was an exciting young talented player. Sharma’s 75* off 50 for the side against CSK reinstates SRH’s belief in the youngster. Moody added that it would do Abhishek a world of good that he has a significant score early in the tournament under his belt.
