Abhishek Sharma should continue opening for SRH: Zaheer Khan

Abhishek Sharma had been having a mixed run with the bat in IPL 2023 heading into Sunrisers Hyderabad’s (SRH) away game against Delhi Capitals (DC) on Saturday, and part of the reason for that was the all-rounder constantly being shuffled around the batting order.

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On Saturday, however, Abhishek stamped his authority on the Delhi Capitals bowlers from the word go after being brought back to the opening slot, reiterating the fact that he belonged to the top of the order with his 36-ball 67, his first half-century of the season.

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The match-winning knock from the Punjab cricketer led to some from the Indian cricket fraternity, including former India speedster Zaheer Khan, calling for the Sunrisers to continue sending him out to bat at the start of the innings, instead of lower down the order as had been the case in a few games this season.

“He should continue batting at the top of the order even though (Harry) Brook has scored a hundred. IPL is such a tournament that you pay heavily if you make mistakes at the top of the order. A lot of planning goes into finalising these things even before the tournament starts,” Khan was quoted as saying on JioCinema.

“They went back to the pair of Mayank Agarwal and Sharma to open the innings today and it paid off. Brook’s promotion to the top earlier had led to a lot of confusion in their ranks. Even today, I reiterate that SRH are a very good side on paper, but they are not producing the best results and that has to do with something unrelated to cricket. How you approach games, the decisions you make are a big part of IPL,” added Khan.

Former New Zealand all-rounder Scott Styris echoed Khan’s views.

“Sharma is back to the place where he should be and Harry Brook is back to a place he’s more comfortable with. They at least rectified the mistake they made,” Styris said on JioCinema.

Sharma’s 67, along with Heinrich Klaasen’s unbeaten 53 off 27 balls — his maiden half-century in the IPL — helped Sunrisers pile a challenging total of 197/6 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium where scoring wasn’t exactly easy. It was a redemption of sorts for the SRH batters who had failed to chase down 145 against the same attack on Monday in the same week.

Mitchell Marsh’s all-round display, however, brought the Capitals back in the game. After his haul of 4/27 that ensured SRH were restricted below the 200-mark, Marsh struck a 39-ball 63 and forged a 112-run second-wicket stand with Philip Salt, putting DC at the driver’s seat at one point.

A superb catch by Mayank Markande off his own bowling however, turned the game on its head as Delhi would go on to lose five wickets for just 36 runs, resulting in a slowdown in the middle and death overs that ultimately resulted in a sixth defeat in eight matches for the struggling Capitals.

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