Brian Lara, the head coach of SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH), has confessed that Washington Sundar adds value to the franchise with both the bat and the ball. The West Indies veteran said that the all-rounder is still a work in progress and that great things should not be expected of him too soon.
Sundar, 23, has failed to take a wicket in this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL). Batting lower in the order, he hasn’t been able to make much of an impact with the willow.
When asked about Sundar’s batting position, Lara stated during a post-match press conference:
“Washington’s value to the team is both to bowl and bat, but we have got players who can play at the top positions. With Washington, yes, we want him to be that great all-rounder with both bat and ball, but I think it’s going to take time.
“Pressing the button and saying that this kid has potential and let’s get him up [the batting order], that’s pretty much pressing the panic button.”
Brian Lara
“The left-right combination is not a bad one”: Brian Lara
After being assigned to bat first, Hyderabad’s batting once again let them down, scoring only 134/7. Instead of Mayank Agarwal, SRH sent Abhishek Sharma and Harry Brook as the openers. In 4.2 overs, the pair scored 35 runs. Lara remarked on the new opening pair’s performance:
“The experiment of trying to get Harry Brook up the order produced a 100. If you would ask what team we would want to have at the beginning of the tournament, if we had a fit Abhishek, then it’d be Abhishek and Mayank Agarwal [as openers].
“But Harry Brook has given the innings some impetus, the couple of times that he has been able to get off. You can see he has intention. The left-right combination is not a bad one. It didn’t entirely work today [Friday], but there was some promise.”
Lara also praised Agarwal as a very committed cricketer and added:
“With Mayank, you don’t want to trouble the batting order too much. Rahul Tripathi is at number 3 position and he’s quite happy. When you have a player like Mayank, he’s very committed, heart of the team and willing to do anything and he backs himself. He had a positive approach, which didn’t work out today, but I like the attitude.”