"There is no sense in opening the batting with Abhishek Sharma" - Aakash Chopra picks playing XIs for SRH vs LSG IPL 2022 clash

Former Indian batter Aakash Chopra reckons that the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) should not open the batting with Abhishek Sharma in their IPL 2022 contest against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). According to him, the ploy doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Having been thumped by 61 runs in their opening IPL 2022 encounter, according to the IPL 2022 schedule, Hyderabad will take on Lucknow at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Monday.

Analyzing SRH’s squad, Chopra suggested some changes to the batting order. Speaking on his YouTube channel, he opined:

“There is no sense in opening the batting with Abhishek Sharma. Don’t open with him. Instead, open with Rahul Tripathi and Washington Sundar. Washi is batting beautifully and he is a top-order batsman. He is being wasted lower down the order. Kane Williamson, Nicholas Pooran, Aiden Markram will complete my Top 5. I would bat Abhishek Sharma at 6 and Abdul Samad at 7.”

On the bowling attack, he stated that he would play South African left-arm pacer Marco Jansen ahead of West Indies' Romario Shepherd. Chopra added:

“Among the bowlers, I would play Marco Jansen ahead of Romario Shepherd. Then of course SRH have three pacers in Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar), T Natarajan and Umran Malik.”

In Hyderabad’s opening encounter against Rajasthan, Sundar was hammered for 47 in his three overs and Natarajan went for 43 in his four, but the latter claimed a couple of wickets.

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“In my playing XI for LSG, there is no place for Manish Pandey” – Aakash Chopra

Despite Lucknow chasing down 211 against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in their previous match, Chopra said that he would still make some tweaks to the IPL team. The former cricketer did not pick the out-of-form Manish Pandey in his preferred playing XI.

Sharing his thoughts on LSG’s squad, the 44-year-old stated:

“In my playing XI for LSG, there is no place for Manish Pandey. My top three would be KL Rahul, Quinton de Kock and Evin Lewis. I would bat Deepak Hooda at four and push Ayush Badoni to five. He is batting too low for now. Jason Holder will come in at six, and Krunal Pandya at seven.”

Chopra also picked Ankit Rajpoot as one of his pacers, adding:

“For the bowlers, I would go with Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Andrew Tye and will play Ankit Rajpoot as well. In that way, Lucknow would have four bowlers and three all-rounders.”

Although LSG beat CSK in their previous IPL 2022 encounter, their bowlers proved expensive. Dushmantha Chameera went for 49 in his four while Tye conceded 40.