His Experience Will Strengthen Our Middle-Order: VVS Laxman Explains On Buying Kedar Jadhav

Former India cricketer, VVS Laxman, who is also the mentor of the Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise, explains the strategy for buying Kedar Jadhav in the IPL 2021 Auction on Thursday.

Jadhav was released by the Chennai Super Kings after his disappointing season last year – 62 runs in 8 matches at a strike rate of 93.94 – and also his price for which he was bought – 7.8 crore – three seasons ago made him a massive liability for the MS Dhoni-led outfit.

However, Sunrisers Hyderabad believes that the batting all-rounder could be a perfect fit in their squad. While Jadhav may have had a couple of dismal seasons with CSK, however, not long ago he was part of the Indian team in the World Cup and was amongst runs in the recent Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

Hence, VVS Laxman, underlining SRH’s lower middle-order woes for the past seasons, opines that Jadhav, who was bought for his base price of INR 2 crore, could do the late order-hitting and release the pressure of added responsibility from the top-order batsman.

“As far as Kedar Jadhav is concerned, just his experience will strengthen our middle order, we have exciting middle-order batters, in the last few years, we missed the experience in this department. Kedar is also a useful bowler, he is an international experience. I am happy that he is with us,” VVS Laxman said after the auction.

There is a mystery to Mujeeb’s bowling style: VVS Laxman

Sunrisers Hyderabad bought just two more players – Mujeeb Ur Rahman (INR 1.5 crore) and J Suchith (INR 30 lakh) – as they had already retained 22 players. Laxman believes that Mujeeb, who was released by Punjab, has a mystery element to his bowling and is difficult to read off the hand – making him one of the most sought-after spinners in league cricket all over the world.

The 46-year-old former India batsman asserts that since the IPL is going to be played in India this time, it is important to have spinners in the squad, and hence they are didn’t bought any overseas pacer keeping faith in their Indian cartel of pacers. Mujeeb and Suchith are the backups for the likes of Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, and Shahbaz Nadeem.

“Mujeeb is an experienced IPL bowler and there is a mystery to his bowling style. The other option for us was an overseas fast bowler, we felt with our fast bowling options available and the Indian talent available, we thought it would be better for us if we have a mystery spinner in our squad as it strengths our spin bowling department. We know that the IPL is meant to be in Mumbai, if we know there is wear and tear in the wicket, it gives us more flexibility,” VVS Laxman added.

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