Heinrich Klaasen drops bombshell verdict on SRH's overdependence on Travis Head-Abhishek Sharma opening pair

Sunrisers Hyderabad were humbled on Thursday as Lucknow Super Giants sealed a five-wicket win in their IPL 2025 fixture. It was LSG's first win of the season, and SRH failed to build on their opening win, crumbling to a loss.

Known for their power-packed batting order, SRH posted sub-par total by their standards, setting a target of 191 runs. The first innings saw Abhishek Sharma depart for only six runs off six balls. Meanwhile, Ishan Kishan was dismissed for a golden duck. Meanwhile, Abhishek's opening partner narrowly missed out on a half-century, registering 47 off 28 balls.

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The famed opening duo of Head and Abhishek could only manage 15 runs before the dismissal of the latter. Speaking after the match, SRH's Heinrich Klaasen was asked about his team's overdependence on their opening pair.

Heinrich Klaasen drops verdict on Travis Head-Abhishek Sharma

“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 everytime. We're good enough to score without them as well. They put teams under pressure when they come off and makes 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,” said the wicketkeeper-batter.

He also attributed SRH's defeat to bad luck. “We didn't score enough runs. 210-220 was par score. 1 or 2 unlucky wickets. One caught down the leg side, 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,” he added.

From pole position, SRH have fallen to sixth position in the standings, with two points in two matches (one win and one defeat).