'I Was Surprised': Pujara Asks Pat Cummins To Be Smart Enough After DC Defeat
India batter Cheteshwar Pujara has questioned Sunrisers Hyderabad about whether the team has a Plan B.
India cricketer Cheteshwar Pujara has said that he was surprised to see Pat Cummins choosing to bat first in Sunday afternoon’s match against the Delhi Capitals and winning a toss in the day game should ideally make a captain decide to field first and not bat.
Hyderabad came close to breaching the 300-run mark in their opening game against the Rajasthan Royals, scoring 286/6. This fiery batting probably gave Cummins the confidence to put his batters in for a run fest.
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Right from Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma at the top to Cummins at No. 8, all batters have been swinging their bat from the first ball, and this approach has cost the team in the last two matches.
“Firstly, I was really surprised they chose to bat first (against DC). When you’re playing an afternoon game, you know that the pitch will be slightly on the slow side; that’s when you normally prefer to bowl, and that’s an ideal time to bowl, not an ideal time to bat," Pujara said while speaking on ESPNCricinfo.
“I thought they should have bowled first. But talking about their batting, I think they go too hard and they were not smart enough today. “What is your success then? If you are just winning two out of 10, then it doesn’t make sense," Pujara added.
Hyderabad skipper Cummins, though, is not losing sleep over consecutive defeats after their explosive start to IPL 2025, insisting it is “too early to worry".
Hyderabad set the stage on fire by amassing 286/6 against the Rajasthan Royals but then lost to the Lucknow Super Giants by five wickets in their home venue before suffering a seven-wicket loss to Delhi.
“It’s too early to worry about being two down, hopefully, we’ll get back going forward. As I said, we need to have a look at a few of our options. Maybe we just need to do one or two things differently, and the results would change," Cummins said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
Hyderabad play their next match against defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders on April 3 at the latter’s home in a rematch of the IPL 2024 final.
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