'We don't need Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma....' - Heinrich Klaasen's bold statement after SRH's loss to LSG

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) wicketkeeper-batter Heinrich Klaasen has shut down talks about his team’s overreliance on their explosive opening pair Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma after his team’s crushing five-wicket loss to Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in their IPL 2025 clash on March 27.

Heinrich Klaasen has made it clear that Sunrisers Hyderabad’s batting depth goes far beyond their openers, with power hitters stacked all the way down to No. 8, and they are powerful enough to deliver without Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma.

Heinrich Klaasen dismisses SRH's overreliance on Travis Head-Abhishek Sharma after crushing defeat to LSG

SRH, famous for their explosive batting lineup, fell short of expectations and set a target of 191 runs to win the IPL 2025 game for the LSG at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. Abhishek Sharma got out early, scoring just 6 runs from 6 balls, while Ishan Kishan was dismissed for a first-ball duck. On the other hand, Travis Head scored 47 off 28 balls.

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However, in their season opener, the aggressive opening duo of Abhishek and Travis performed much better, and SRH ended up posting a record total of 286/6 runs and eventually thrashed the Rajasthan Royals by 44 runs in Hyderabad. But their top order surrendered to the LSG’s bowling attack, as nobody could even hit a fifty, leaving fans and cricket experts stunned.

We're good enough to score without them: Heinrich Klaasen

Well, Klaasen insisted that Head and Sharma’s aggressive starts make things easier, but the SRH is packed with enough firepower to handle any challenge. The Proteas star admitted that SRH’s batting approach is naturally risky, but they are not dependent on any individuals.

Heinrich Klaasen said after the SRH vs LSG match, “Not at all. If we look at our batting lineup, we are destructive till batter No. 8. We don't need Travis and Abhishek to come off every time. We're good enough to score without them as well.

They put teams under pressure when they come off and make our jobs easier. You will never have a season where both of them will score more than 1000 runs. It's the way we play, a bit on the riskier side. But no. We have big enough players to know that we need to do it by ourselves as well.”

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Heinrich Klaasen blames bad luck and poor batting for Hyderabad's defeat against LSG in the IPL 2025 match

The right-handed batter also blamed SRH's defeat on a bit of bad luck and poor batting performance against the LSG. The explosive batter felt that a score of 210-220 would have been par on such a good wicket at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad.

Klaasen signed off by saying, “We didn't score enough runs. 210-220 was par score. 1 or 2 unlucky wickets. One caught down the leg side, and one hit off the bowler's hands and on to the stumps. It's part of the game. We didn't score enough runs on a good wicket.”

Notably, the Sunrisers Hyderabad will next face Delhi Capitals in the ongoing IPL 2025 on March 30 at the Dr. YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam.