IPL 2020 | Vijay Shankar should be picked if fit as he has the confidence to express himself, reckons Sanjay Manjrekar
Vijay Shankar played his last game against Delhi before getting injured
|@IPLT20
Sanjay Manjrekar has reckoned that Hyderabad should definitely include Vijay Shankar against DC if he is fit as he has the confidence to express himself. He pointed out that Priyam Garg wasted the ‘perfect’ opportunity to make his mark against RCB as the conditions were favourable for the chase.
Although Hyderabad won the match against Bangalore quite convincingly, they had few hiccups at the end, which were straightened out by Kane Williamson with his match-winning fifty, winning the match for his team by 6 wickets. After Shreevats Goswami got out early, they kept losing regular wickets but were finally saved by the partnership of Williamson and Jason Holder. Their chase showed the weakness in the middle order of Hyderabad, which emerged after they lost Vijay Shankar to injury, who scored 52* and 26 in his last two innings.
Sanjay Manjrekar reckoned that if Shankar is fit then he should be included in the squad as he has the confidence from his previous innings. He pointed out that Priyam Garg had the perfect opportunity to make his mark, which he wasted by getting out on 7 after playing 14 balls.
“If Vijay Shankar is fit they might think about getting him back because the last few outings for him have been good. I think Vijay Shankar from what I read is a guy who needs a bit of confidence to express himself and he’s got that. So if he is fit he should come back in,” Manjrekar said in a video posted by ESPNcricinfo
“Priyam Garg had a perfect opportunity. It was perfect for him, the required rate just being above 7. It was a great opportunity for the young batsman to make a mark and he squandered that away.”
Manjrekar further added that Kane Williamson batting at 3 can make Hyderabad a much better side with Holder coming in to bat at 6, making their Indian key batsman Manish Pandey bat at four, in between two overseas batsmen.
“I’ll be tempted to make another change that I have been trying to make the whole of the IPL season, it’s been two months where I have been wanting to have Kane Williamson bat ahead of Manish Pandey. The last eliminator that we saw had Kane Williamson come in early. I think they would have got there to the target in a little more relaxed manner. So, William at 3, Pandey at 4 have little more experience than someone like Abhishek Sharma and Priyam Garg. If Vijay Shankar is fit, he comes in there, then the batting looks really good with Jason Holder at 6,” he said.
