'What is your success if you win just two out of 10?' - Cheteshwar Pujara questions SRH's aggressive batting approach

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) lost Match 10 against Delhi Capitals (DC) at Visakhapatnam on Sunday, March 30. They batted aggressively right from the start but in the process kept on losing wickets. By the time the fifth over was done, they had lost four wickets already.

Despite that, SRH coach Daniel Vettori stated that the team has no plans to alter its current strategy. Notwithstanding their aggressive batting, which led to several records being broken, cricket experts Cheteshwar Pujara and Ian Bishop believe SRH need to reconsider their approach and have a Plan B.

“Firstly I was really surprised they chose to bat first, when you’re playing an afternoon game, you know that the pitch will be slightly on the slow side, that’s when you normally prefer to bowl and that’s an ideal time to bowl, not an ideal time to bat. I thought they should have bowled first. But talking about their batting, I think they go too hard and they were not smart enough today,” Pujara said to ESPNcricinfo.

SRH ended the powerplay at 58/4 after Mitchell Starc’s fiery spell. However, Aniket Verma’s 74 off 41, along with a 77-run stand with Heinrich Klaasen, provided resistance. But later on, DC’s bowlers dominated the lower order, bundling SRH out for 163.

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Klaasen should have batted deeper: Ian Bishop

Former West Indian fast bowler Ian Bishop felt that Klaasen should have batted deeper alongside Aniket, as the latter was in better flow. Bishop admitted that while SRH could stick to their aggressive approach, one player should take more time to settle instead of going hard from the start.

“Those are experiences that I hope they will be learning (from), even Pat Cummins who says 'keep going hard', as they go through the season, I look at Klaasen's dismissal, I think even Heinrich should know his power and if he was to stay and bat a little bit deeper, he will score at a huge tempo. It's still early in the season, but they [SRH] have got to start understanding that if Aniket gets going, we can spend some time there with him as deep as we bat and just soak it up just a little bit more.

“It's not to consolidate for five-six overs, but it's just maybe to manage for about three, four, five bowls, maybe even an over, we're not talking consolidation for long period,” said Bishop.

Meanwhile, Pujara questioned SRH’s aggressive approach, especially since results weren’t going their way. He pointed out that after starting the season in their usual style, they suffered defeats in the next two games.

"What is your success then, if you are just winning two out of 10, then it doesn't make sense. You need to win more number of games. You need to show that consistency again and again. Last season we saw that they played brilliantly throughout the league phase but what if one game goes wrong for you in the knockouts, then you're not able you are not able to have a plan,” Pujara added further.