The openers play crucial roles in the success of the franchises in the Indian Premier League. Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal have done impressive for Rajasthan Royals. Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma are winning games for Sunrisers Hyderabad. However, the most consistent has been the opening batters of Kolkata Knight Riders, Phil Salt and Sunil Narine. Interestingly, Narine is not the natural opening bater and has more weaknesses than strengths.
The bowlers can quickly stop him by targeting his legs or delivering yorkers. Even the deliveries wide of the off-stump have stopped the southpaw from freeing his arms. However, despite all the issues, Narine has come up with the answers and is dealing in the fifties. He is among the top ten run-getters in the 17th season of the cash-rich league. Salt is also right up there.
Head and Abhishek have been sensational for Sunrisers Hyderabad, but they haven’t even been able to stitch match-winning partnerships regularly. Former India player Navjot Singh Sidhu has heaped praise on the KKR openers.
“Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma have been unstoppable for Hyderabad, but I feel no opening pair comes close to Phil Salt and Sunil Narine. The two have dominated bowlers in most of the games. Narine and Salt are dominating attacks in the IPL, and the damage they are causing can’t be explained easily. KKR are doing well in the competition because their openers are contributing. SRH have failed in the last two games because Head and Abhishek couldn’t fire,” he said on Star Sports.