‘SRH are not achieving anything…’: Jaffer baffled by Hyderabad not letting star all-rounder play higher up the order | Cricket

Former India batter Wasim Jaffer was baffled by SunRisers Hyderabad’s (SRH) decision to make Washington Sundar bat at No.8 in their opening match of the 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL) season against Rajasthan Royals. Jaffer said that SRH were wasting Sundar’s talent by bringing him in so low down the order.

“Washington Sundar surely has to bat above number 8. I don’t think you are achieving anything from him by making him bat there,” the former India opener said on ESPNCricinfo.

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“He needs to bowl a couple of overs in the powerplay and has to bat at 6 or 7. If needed ,you can also promote him to number 3 or 4. That short little innings would have given him a lot of confidence,” he said.

SRH lost by a heavy margin of 61 runs but Sundar impressed with a 14-ball 40. Sundar had been made to bat in the top order at the Royal Challengers Bangalore and boasts an average of 66.25 in the four Test matches he has played for India, playing crucial innings in the team’s succesfull tour of Australia in 2020/21 and their series win at home over England.

RR scored 210/6 batting first with captain Sanju Samson scoring a half century. Jos Buttler, Devdutt Padikkal and Shimron Hetmyer all made useful contributions as well and in response, SRH were restricted to 149/7. They were tottering at 37/5 in the 11th over and were 78/6 in the 16th before Sundar’s assault got them close to the 150-run mark.