Australian all-rounder and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) cricketer Shane Watson praised about his IPL young Indian teammate Sarfaraz Khan. During RCB’s opening game in IPL 2016, Sarfaraz Khan played an incredible knock of 35 runs in just 10 balls at the end of the innings. Basically, his innings helped RCB to put over 200 runs (227/4 in 20 overs) on the board and clinch an easy win against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 45 runs.
Shane Watson said that the young right-hander batsman has an incredible control in his shots. Watson said at the post-match press conference, “He is an incredible young man and there is no doubt that he has worked extremely hard to get all kinds of shots right. The control over shots he has… Never seen before for a young talent like him. It shows he has practiced a hell of a lot, and we saw him this [against SRH].”
Watson also praised AB de Villiers for his amazing 82 runs innings on that night. Watson said about AB de Villiers, “What I saw tonight is as good as batting I have ever seen. He didn’t look like taking a risk at all in his entire innings. One shot he played off the back foot for a six is an incredible shot to play, and he does it with so much of ease is really a pleasure to watch. He executes his shots incredibly well.”
Watson also talked about the RCB’s top-order batting and said there is no need to change the batting order of Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, and AB de Villiers. Watson spoke out on it, “This I saw happening in the previous season when I was playing as a rival for Rajasthan Royals. So, why should one change the order when the top three are delivering? You need to take early wickets, otherwise, you are in deep trouble, and that’s what exactly happened tonight.”
Watson also spoke out the batting depth of RCB’s side. The Australian all-rounder said, “It is not going to be everyone’s day. Chris got out early, but we had depth in batting with likes of Kedar Jadhav, Sarfaraz, AB and Kohli in our side.”
When Watson was asked about his current relation with the West Indian batsman and his current IPL teammate Chris Gayle, Watson replied, “Relations with Gayle has been very good so far. We had a couple of commercials as well which gave us a chance to know each other better after few run-ins in the past. Don’t know how it works when I am playing alongside him in one team. This is the beauty of cricket.”
Watson also said that he was happy to take the wicket of his national teammate David Warner. Watson said about the Warner’s wicket, “Yes, it was a prize wicket because David has all the potential to score big runs. We remember him scoring 150 runs in T20. I am happy to have claimed his wicket, and once we saw his back, we knew we could squeeze the opponents.”