Pat Cummins backs SRH’s calculated aggression, calls batting line-up ‘most destructive’ in IPL

In an exclusive interview on JioHotstar’s special series “Gen Gold,” Cummins said they were fortunate to have a squad with such power, where the focus isn’t merely on swinging wildly. “Our players are naturally capable of striking close to 200, and that’s exactly what we encourage,” he added.

Hyderabad: Sunrisers Hyderabad captain and pace ace Pat Cummins feels that most of his players are aggressive but what stood out to him is it isn’t reckless but calculated aggression.

Speaking exclusively on JioHotstar’s special series “Gen Gold”, Cummins said they were lucky that they got such strength that it’s never just about swinging. “Our guys are well suited to striking at close to 200, so that’s what we always encourage,” he said.

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Cummins, who led Australia to ODI World Cup and World Test championship victories, said potentially SRH had the most destructive batting line-up in the IPL. “But we feel like with that batting line-up, all it takes is one, maybe two guys to play—and that could be match-winning for us,” he said.

“They’re all match winners, so I know I’d be worried coming up against that line-up because you know on their day they can score 100 runs in 30-odd balls,” Cummins said.

Cummins felt that the young batter Aniket Verma had really impressed them and no matter the game situation he would try to hit sixes and strikes beautifully.

On working with young talent, the SRH captain felt they were all similar players, quite aggressive and like taking the game on. “They’ve fitted in well with the team. They’re the type of players we deliberately look for during auction time. We convey to them that they should just keep playing to their strengths,” Cummins said.

“Making sure they know we’re going to keep backing them—it’s not going to work every time, you might not score runs every time, but that’s okay,” said Cummins whose team is clearly struggling this season with just two wins from eight games so far.

Cummins said that last year everyone talked about the runs but there was a lot of experience in that bowling line-up with the likes of T. Natarajan, Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar) and JD (Jaydev Unadkat).”This year, it’s pretty much the same—Harshal Patel, Mohammad Shami, Jaydev Unadkat again. Then Adam Zampa. I feel keeping a cool head when the batters are scoring runs and the ball’s flying around is really important,” he explained.

“Maintaining that confidence throughout a season comes with experience, so I feel like we’re well-placed,” he said.

Reflecting on the talk of Sunrisers breaching the 300-mark this season, Cummins said the credit goes to the batting group. “I think they raised the ceiling of what’s possible in T20 batting. The wickets are good, and we’ve got an extra impact player, but they showed that chasing 10 an over should be more common if you have a strong line-up in these conditions,” he said.

“I think they’ve surprised everyone—maybe even themselves—with just how good their batting is,” Cummins said.