Kumar Sangakkara, will expect more from the specialist batsmen other than Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson, particularly the young Riyan Parag, in the coming season. After the final on Sunday, Sangakkara stated that he will work hard to achieve his goal.
At the post-match press conference, Sangakkara said, “I think we have a lot of improvement to do in all areas basically.” “If you look at our batting lineup, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, and Shimron Hetmyer all made significant contributions in the early stages.” Riyan and Devdutt [Padikkal] did well in patches, but we need a little more from the support-role players in terms of overall performance.
“I believe Riyan Parag has a lot of potential, and I believe we need to move him into a higher batting number by the time we come back in the next session.” Because I believe he is so competent against both spin and pace, I am looking forward to nurturing him to become more of an early middle-order guy rather than just a death hitter.
“I believe we have the purple and orange caps, and we played exceptionally well as a team.” And I think the boys put in an incredible effort from the beginning of the tournament till now, so I’m extremely proud.”
In 14 innings in the IPL, Parag faced only 132 balls. His unbroken 56 off 31 balls against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Pune was his longest stay at the crease. They sought to shore up the batting by playing Daryl Mitchell and James Neesham during the season, but this threw off their bowling balance. They eventually settled on their top five bowlers, leaving the batters to adjust. That may have put more pressure on Buttler to bat through, putting more pressure on Samson and Yashasvi Jaiswal to bat quickly so that Buttler’s slower starts could be accommodated.
At the post-match presentation, when asked about his own year, Samson told Star Sports: “Jos played 20 overs this year, which gave him an entirely different position. To play around him, in different scenarios, with varying strike rates, and against the bowlers, each hitter had a different mindset. There are some good 30s, 40s, and 20s, but there is still a lot to learn.”
Buttler, though, refused to put his slower starts down to the thin batting. Asked if he was left with the dual role of batting long and batting quick, Buttler told Star Sports: “Not at all. In good teams, you have a lot of trust in everyone. I have huge trust in everyone else. We played fantastic all season and came short today. I react to my own game. If the game asks me to be aggressive or hang in, I trust myself to make the right decision.”
That said, Jaiswal and Samson had made up for it with their quick starts to have Royals at 59 for 1 in eight overs in the final, which Sangakkara thought was a good base once they had made the surprising decision to bat upon winning only their fourth toss of the season.
Sangakkara said, “We were debating whether to put them in first as well.” “When we got at the stadium, we noticed that the pitch was rather dry. And we reasoned that it would slow down and give our spinners a little more turn. So we were anticipating a score of 160-165. At the halfway point of our batting innings, we were 70 for one. Then Sanju got out, and Hardik [Pandya] came on and bowled some lovely overs, allowing Gujarat to get back into the game.
“With 130 on the board, you’ll need some luck and fast wickets in the powerplay. We did get two, but we didn’t get Shubman Gill in the first over, and the [asking] run rate never rose above seven. As a result, it was always going to be difficult.”
Sangakkara praised his bowlers, but predicted that Ashwin will push himself harder next season. Sangakkara said, “Ash has done a fantastic job for us.” “Even Ash, who is a legend in terms of what he has accomplished on the cricketing field, will have a lot of work to do, especially with his offspinner and bowling more of it.”
