People back home have a lot of expectations from me: Abdul Samad

The India Premier League is known for hosting young talent from all across the nation, and the latest match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Capitals saw another one. Jammu and Kashmir cricketer Abdul Samad marked his debut for the SRH team and opened up on his innings with his compatriot and star of the match, Rashid Khan. The six he hit off Anrich Nortje turned all the heads and invited a lot of appreciation from many.

The 18-year-old young talent played an unbeaten knock of 12 off seven balls and added his bit in SRH’s total of 162/4 against the Capitals. Samad carried the reputation of being an explosive hitter even before he appeared for his debut match. To everybody’s expectations, he replicated the same on the field by hitting a four and a six in his brief knock and maintained the strike rate over 171.

Samad came up to chat with the star spinner from his team, Rashid Khan and stated how he was given full freedom from management to play his natural game.

“Felt really well playing here in my first game. I hit a huge six, which gave me a lot of confidence. People back home have a lot of expectations from me and hope I’ll do good in the future games. Team management told me beforehand to play my natural game. They told me to go free and just hit them. I started swinging from the first ball I faced. I missed 3-4 times, but when I hit that six (off Nortje) I got a lot of confidence. I hope I can hit more sixes in the upcoming matches,” said Samad as quoted by India Today.

I didn’t feel much pressure: Abdul Samad

Samad, who is the third player from Jammu and Kashmir to feature in IPL, stated that he didn’t feel much pressure while playing his game. He also added that the IPL is the same as domestic, but the former has greater intensity.

“I did not feel much pressure playing my first IPL game. There is not much difference between domestic cricket and IPL because mostly the same players feature in both. The pressure and intensity is a bit higher in IPL. We did not have any crowd, but even then, I didn’t feel much pressure,” the teenager concluded.