"Sharma ji's son will be playing for India within 45 days" - Aakash Chopra picks Abhishek Sharma among SRH's positives heading into Qualifier 1 vs KKR

The SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) will face the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in IPL 2024 Qualifier 1 in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, May 21. Ahead of the game, Aakash Chopra has picked Abhishek Sharma as one of the positives in the Pat Cummins-led side's batting department.

With 17 points from 14 games, SRH finished second in the league phase. Although they had the same points as the Rajasthan Royals (RR), they pipped Sanju Samson and company to a Qualifier 1 berth based on net run rate.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra noted that Abhishek has been one of the mainstays in the SRH batting department and opined that the youngster will play for India soon.

"Abhishek Sharma is the shining star. If we focus on the last match against Punjab as well, they lost a wicket off the first ball, Travis Head, but it doesn't matter to Abhishek Sharma that what has happened at the other end. He comes and plays in a fearless and carefree manner. Sharma ji's son will be playing for India within 45 days," he elaborated (6:50).

The former India batter feels the left-handed opener will be crucial for SRH in Tuesday's game.

"I feel Abhishek Sharma will open for India on the Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka tours. He plays extremely well and will have to play even better in this match because you will get Sunil Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy in the opposition. Spin might be introduced early because of Travis Head. So you will have to get an Indian batter to neutralize spin - that's Abhishek Sharma," Chopra reasoned.

With 467 runs at an outstanding strike rate of 209.41 in 13 innings, Abhishek is SRH's second-highest run-scorer in IPL 2024. Only his opening partner Travis Head (533) has scored more runs for the franchise this season.

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"He scored runs here in the World Cup final and defeated us very badly" - Aakash Chopra on SRH's Travis Head

Travis Head smashed a match-winning century in the World Cup final against India. [P/C: iplt20.com]

Aakash Chopra pointed out that Travis Head, Nitish Kumar Reddy, and Rahul Tripathi have also been among the runs for the Hyderabad-based franchise.

"Travis Head likes this pitch. He scored runs here in the World Cup final and defeated us very badly. Bowlers try to bowl towards his body to dismiss him but he is explosive. Nitish Reddy is in very good form. So he is doing well. The No. 3 batter seemed to be a weakness but Rahul Tripathi played well in the last match," he said (7:30).

The cricketer-turned-commentator noted that the aforementioned batters and Heinrich Klaasen need to fire for SRH's lower-middle order to provide the finishing touches.

"So that change is better and then Heinrich Klaasen. This team's batting is very dependent on these four or five batters. After that, Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed and Pat Cummins - all of them are able to do the job if four of the top five play 15 overs," Chopra observed.

Chopra claimed that the IPL 2016 champions have a decent but not a great bowling lineup, and urged them to play Mayank Markande in place of Vijayakanth Viyaskanth. He added that they could alternatively play Marco Jansen, pointing out that the extra bounce from the Ahmedabad pitch would work in the lanky seamer's favor.