Hyderabad bowler Rashid Khan believes that his team’s opening order hasn’t got opportunities thus far, and has dismissed the claims that they are over-reliant on David Warner and Jonny Bairstow’s opening partnership.
Both Warner (517 runs) and Bairstow (445 runs) have been in glaring form this season, and have acquired the top two slots respectively in tournament’s highest run scorers. In nine games thus far, the duo has amazed whopping 729 runs.
While these two batsmen are efficiently working on a positive note, Hyderabad’s middle order has been nowhere close to the duo. This has led the suggestion that the team is heavily reliant on their foreign contingent, but all-rounder Rashid Khan believes otherwise.
Speaking to Hindustan Times, the Afghan prodigy says, “There is no doubt that our openers are really good and they have been scoring a lot of runs. I think the middle order has not got a lot of opportunities so far. Everyone is in good form and hitting the nets hard. I think the middle order is waiting for a big opportunity to strike and I am confident they will come good if required in the matches to come.”
Speaking of his side's inconsistency, the 20-year-old added, "We have done well so far, just that we couldn’t finish a couple of matches due to a batting collapse. We are looking to play positive cricket and the focus is about improving every match."
After losing three back to back games, Hyderabad came back to winning ways with Warner and Bairstow once again playing a vital role in it. Chasing Kolkata’s 160, the duo amazed 131 runs and shared 10 boundaries and nine maximums between each other.
