'He is in form' - Harbhajan Singh slams Punjab Kings for dropping Bhanuka Rajapaksa

Former India cricketer Harbhajan Singh has slammed Punjab Kings for dropping the in-form Bhanuka Rajapaksa in order to make place for Jonny Bairstow. PBKS dropped Rajapaksa from the line-up as soon as Bairstow was available for selection. The Sri Lankan wicketkeeper-batter was in great form for his side, as he had scored 83 runs in just three games at an astounding strike rate of 230.56.

He came in to bat at number three in all the games that he played and scored handy runs in no time. Meanwhile, Bairstow has not performed well this season and accounts for just 41 runs in four games. Harbhajan feels that dropping Rajapaksa was a big mistake that PBKS made as selecting Bairstow for his reputation wasn’t fair.

While speaking on SK Straight Talk, he said: “You should never drop a player who is in form. When someone is doing well for you and you drop him for Jonny Bairstow only for reputation and assume that he would score big runs, that doesn’t work. Whenever a player is doing well, you need to continue with him even if a senior player is sitting out because you need to think of the team first.”

There needs to be a partnership through sensible batting: Harbhajan Singh

Harbhajan is of the opinion that the reason behind PBKS batters being so inconsistent stems from their strategy of playing aggressive cricket, without focusing on the need of the hour. The 41-year-old feels that PBKS should work on modifying the plans in order to make it work.

“Punjab play the brand of cricket where they keep on attacking even if a couple of wickets or three wickets fall in the powerplay. Whenever you lose wickets, there needs to be a partnership through sensible batting, which they aren’t doing at the moment,” he added.

The veteran felt that Shikhar Dhawan is the only player who has been successful in holding the game tight for the team, and no one else has succeeded in stepping up. “Punjab do need to find an anchor for their innings. Shikhar Dhawan can do that role but apart from him, all the other batters look to hit sixes. Don’t forget the basics of the game as even singles and doubles are a part of T20 cricket and not just sixes,” he concluded.

Punjab lost their previous encounter against Delhi Capitals miserably by nine wickets after they posted a low total of 115 runs in 20 overs.

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