Still Looking for Our Best Playing XI, Says SRH Mentor VVS Laxman

Laxman said that it was good to see the youngsters perform, but Bhuvneshwar’s injury forced them to make changes.

Sunrisers Hyderabad mentor VVS Laxman said that it was good to see the youngsters perform, but they are still searching for best XI.

(Photo: BCCI/IPL)

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) mentor VVS Laxman said that the team is still looking for their best combination as far as the playing XI is concerned, after the loss against Mumbai Indians on Sunday, at Sharjah.

When asked about the lack of a proper fifth bowling option, Laxman said, “We’ve seen in the last match that (Abdul) Samad, in fact, bowled the last over - unfortunately, Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar) missed out - and held his nerve. Both Samad and Abhishek Sharma are capable bowlers who can give those four overs from the fifth bowling option.”

In SRH’s previous game, Bhuvneshwar Kumar came on to bowl the 19th over of the Chennai Super Kings’ innings, but after bowling the first ball, he got injured and Khaleel Ahmed had to complete that over. Which meant the leg-spinner Abdul Samad had to bowl the 20th over when CSK needed 28 runs off the last over, but he kept his nerve and took SRH to victory.

“I think we’re trying to find our best combination as far as the Playing XI is concerned. We know that we are using three overseas batsmen but it’s great to see the youngsters coming in and performing with the bat and I’m sure that with more experience they will also perform with the ball.”

VVS Laxman, Mentor, SRH

Asked about Sunrisers’ issues with the death bowling, Laxman said that death bowling has been their strength and with their most experienced bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar missing out due to injury and Khaleel being not fully fit, the pressure was always there on the new bowlers on a ground like Sharjah. He believed that their bowlers have performed well throughout the tournament and it was a bad day for Siddharth Kaul, which happens in T20 cricket.

Siddharth Kaul gave away 64 runs in his quota of four overs and because of the lack of a proper fifth bowling option, they had to give the ball Kaul for the last over of the innings where after a single and a wicket, the last four balls of his last over went for 20 runs, and Mumbai breached the 200-mark.

Asked about bowling yorkers to Pollard and Hardik, Laxman said that the best defensive ball was a yorker. He added that the bowlers did bowl yorkers for the major part, but with a margin of error being so less on a ground like this (small boundaries), the ball was disappearing even if you missed your length by a little.

Talking about the turning points while batting, Laxman said the wickets of Kane Williamson and David Warner at crucial junctures hurt their chances. He said that in a chase like this you not only have to have wickets in hand but also keep up with the run-rate and after those two fell, it was too much for the youngsters to do but was appreciative of the efforts of Abdul Samad who hit a couple of sixes in the end.