Sending Wriddhiman Saha to open was a deliberate move: Tom Moody

It was a brilliant first match for Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2018, with an easy win over Rajasthan Royals at their home ground Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. On Monday, in the fourth match of the league, Sunrisers were off with a good start scalping 3 wickets in the first 10 overs, including Rajasthan’s captain Ajinkya Rahane. Sanju Samson tried to take the game forward but got out at one short of a half century.

The RR innings ended at only 125, a score that the Sunrisers easily chased down by the 16th over. Fans were surprised to see wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha opening the batting with Shikhar Dhawan. SRH have lost their regular opener and former captain David Warner due to the ban imposed for his involvement in the ball-tampering scandal. Kane Williamson has taken over the captaincy part; and as it seems, the keeper from Bengal will be shouldering the responsibility of opening the innings.

Deliberate move

While speaking to the media on Wednesday, SRH coach Tom Moody said that it was a deliberate move to send Saha to open because of his impressive performance as a top order batsman in the shortest format of the game. Even though he failed to deliver and scored only 5 runs before Jaydev Unadkat picked him up in the second over,  Moody backed him to come good.

“We feel he is a very dangerous top-order player. Not only is he comfortably the best ‘keeper in the country but we feel at the top of the order in T20 cricket his record is good,” he said.

He was also the best option for sending out a left-right combination. “He is a good right hand option for us as an impact player upfront,” the coach added.

Next, Sunrisers Hyderabad are up against the Mumbai Indians on Thursday. After losing to CSK in the first match, the defending champions will be looking for a win.

In Moody’s opinion, the pitch for this match will be pretty much the same as the last one, with “good pace and carry and plenty of runs”. This is why they will not be experimenting much with the team combination. But they want the perfect XI for this next encounter, and there are a couple of changes that they do have in mind.

“We are looking at a couple of options, yes, but we are reluctant to make too many changes for obvious reasons. We would also like to make sure that we have got the right match-ups for the game against Mumbai,” Moody commented.

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