Abhishek Sharma should continue batting at top of order: Zaheer Khan

Former India pacer Zaheer Khan praised Sharma for his approach at the top of the order, saying SRH should stick to opening with him

Sunrisers Hyderabad brought their three-match losing streak to an end in the IPL 2023, beating Delhi Capitals by nine runs, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Saturday night.

Defending a challenging 197/6, Sunrisers Hyderabad did well to restrict the hosts to 188/6 in a game that was contested between the two bottom-placed teams of the league. Spinner Mayank Markande continued to impress for SRH, taking 2/20 in his four overs. His victims included the dangerous-looking opener Phil Salt, who struck 59 off 35 balls. His innings was laced with nine boundaries. Salt and Mitchell Marsh's 63 runs (39b, 1x4, 6x6) put on 112 for the second wicket after skipper David Warner was out for zero.

Meanwhile, SRH opener Abhishek Sharma emerged as his team's highest scorer, hitting a 36-ball 67. He struck 12 boundaries and a six. Heinrich Klassen too came up with a notable performance for SRH with an unbeaten 27-ball 53. Marsh impressed with the ball taking 4/27 for DC. The win lifted SRH into eighth place on the points table with six points from eight games. DC, on the other hand, are stuck to the bottom place with four points in eight outings.

Former India pacer Zaheer Khan praised Sharma for his approach at the top of the order, saying SRH should stick to opening with him. "He should continue batting at the top of the order even though (Harry) Brook has scored a hundred. IPL is such a tournament that you pay heavily if you make mistakes at the top of the order. A lot of planning goes into finalising these things even before the tournament starts," said Khan on JioCinema.

"They went back to the pair of Mayank Agarwal and Sharma to open the innings today and it paid off. Brook's promotion to the top earlier had led to a lot of confusion in their ranks. Even today, I reiterate that SRH are a very good side on paper, but they are not producing the best results and that has to do with something unrelated to cricket. How you approach games, the decisions you make are a big part of IPL," added Khan.

Former New Zealand cricketer Scott Stryris too agreed with Khan on SRH's decision to open with Sharma. "Sharma is back to the place where he should be and Harry Brook is back to a place he's more comfortable with. They at least rectified the mistake they made."

On DC's batting, Khan said: "We got to see a six that landed just on the boundary rope but beyond that there were quite a few long hits. They opened today with Phil Salt and I have been saying this from before the tournament started that it would not have been a bad option for them to open with Mitchell March."