“Yes, we want him to be that great all-rounder, but it’s going to take time” - Brian Lara on Washington Sundar

SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) head coach Brian Lara has admitted that Washington Sundar offers value to the franchise with both the bat and ball. However, the West Indies legend added that the all-rounder is still a work in progress and great things should not be expected of him too soon.

Sundar, 23, is yet to pick up a wicket in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023. Batting lower down the order, he hasn’t been able to make much of a contribution with the willow as well.

On Friday, April 21, he came into bat at No. 8 against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and was run out for nine off six balls. Asked about Sundar’s batting position, Lara explained while speaking at a post-match press conference:

“Washington’s value to the team is both to bowl and bat, but we have got players who can play at the top positions. With Washington, yes, we want him to be that great all-rounder with both bat and ball, but I think it’s going to take time.

“Pressing the button and saying that this kid has potential and let’s get him up [the batting order], that’s pretty much pressing the panic button.”

With the ball, Sundar sent down 2.4 overs, conceding 16 runs without claiming a wicket as SRH lost to CSK by seven wickets.

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“The left-right combination is not a bad one” - Lara on Brook-Abhishek as openers

Hyderabad’s batting yet again let the team down as they managed only 134/7 after being asked to take bat first. SRH changed their opening combination and sent in Abhishek Sharma with Harry Brook instead of Mayank Agarwal. The duo added 35 in 4.2 overs.

Reflecting on the performance of the new opening pair, Lara commented:

“The experiment of trying to get Harry Brook up the order produced a 100. If you would ask what team we would want to have at the beginning of the tournament, if we had a fit Abhishek then it’d be Abhishek and Mayank Agarwal [as openers].

“But Harry Brook has given the innings some impetus, the couple of times that he has been able to get off. You can see he has intention. The left-right combination is not a bad one. It didn’t entirely work today [Friday], but there was some promise.”

Praising Agarwal as the heart of the team and a very committed cricketer, Lara added:

“With Mayank, you don’t want to trouble the batting order too much. Rahul Tripathi is at number 3 position and he’s quite happy. When you have a player like Mayank, he’s very committed, heart of the team and willing to do anything and he backs himself. He had a positive approach, which didn’t work out today, but I like the attitude.”

Chasing 135 against SRH, CSK got home in 18.4 overs as Devon Conway smashed an unbeaten 77 off 57 balls.