It has not been a great start so far to Sunrises Hyderabad’s IPL 2021 journey, as their first match has resulted in a loss. The Orange army fell short by ten runs in their chase against the Kolkata Knight Riders last night. Indeed, they missed Kane Williamson in the game.
They had a good showcase from their batting department, with Manish Pandey and Jonny Bairstow emerging as the top players. Their innings of 61 runs and 55 runs, respectively, might have given them an excellent start to this mega league but not the desired result.
The side lacked another middle-order batsman as no other player fired in the batting department except Manish and Bairstow. Though they have Kane Williamson as a worthy option for this, he didn’t get the chance to feature last night. SRH went with Warner, Bairstow, Nabi, and Rashid Khan as their four overseas stars.
Kane Williamson is still not 100% fit
However, Trevor Bayliss, the head coach of the side, revealed the reason for the same after their game. He stated:
“We just felt that Kane needed a little bit of extra time to get match fit and a little bit more time in the nets. He would have played in place of Jonny Bairstow obviously if that had occurred. But we aren’t too perturbed about that, Jonny has been in form recently in white-ball cricket here in India. Kane will obviously come into calculations as the tournament unfolds”.
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Bayliss continued that the side is currently focusing on rewarding their stars, who had a good season last year. As a result, they went on with Warner and Saha’s opening combination, which didn’t give them the desired start. Their early loss of wickets created the havoc that was later on managed by Bairstow and Manish Pandey’s duo.
With Jonny Bairstow having a good opening game this year, it is worth noting which player will make way for Kane once he gets to his 100% fitness. The SRH side will be playing their 2nd game of the tournament on 14th April 2021 against Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore side.
