According to Sunrisers Hyderabad coach Brian Lara, the team has decided to support Abhishek Sharma and Harry Brook as their opening batsmen for future matches, despite continued failures, especially for the latter.
SRH has been struggling and is currently situated at the bottom of the league table in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 due to their inconsistent performance. They faced two consecutive defeats in the beginning, then won two matches, but have now lost two in a row.
At the start of the season, SRH did not have their full squad available, and they had to make changes to determine the best combination for their team.
After their defeat to Chennai Super Kings, coach Brian Lara spoke to the media and explained that the Sunrisers Hyderabad team had to make changes to their opening batsmen due to Abhishek Sharma’s injury, which he sustained prior to the start of the tournament. The team was compelled to alter their strategy, leading to frequent changes at the top of the order.
In the aftermath of the match against Chennai, Brian Lara acknowledged that the decision to promote Harry Brook up the order turned out to be successful as he scored a century. Ideally, if Abhishek Sharma was fit, the team would have preferred to have him and Mayank Agarwal as their opening batsmen at the beginning of the tournament.
However, Harry Brook’s performances have added some momentum to the innings, and he has shown the intent to score, which is a positive sign for the team.
“Obviously, the experiment of trying to get Harry Brook up the order produced a 100. If you were saying what team would you have at the beginning of the tournament, if we had a fit Abhishek, it would be Abhishek and Mayank Agarwal. But Harry Brook has given the innings some impetus a couple of times that he’s been able to get off you can see that he has the intention to score which is great,” said the veteran Caribbean SRH coach.
Brian Lara also clarified that Abhishek Sharma, who was Sunrisers Hyderabad’s best batter in the 2022 season of the tournament, was not given the opening spot at the start of the current season because the team was easing him into the role. It appears that the team had a plan in place for Abhishek, and they did not want to rush him back into the side following his injury.
Aiden Markram’s team will be hoping to regain their form after losing their previous two matches, both at home and away. The team’s batting line-up struggled in those games, and the management will be closely monitoring their performance in the upcoming matches before the IPL reaches its halfway mark.
The team will be looking to make improvements and find their rhythm to get back to winning ways in the tournament.