IPL 2025: Bad luck behind Travi-Shek’s mixed season, says Vettori
On batting friendly Wankhede, visitors’ opening act of Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head will be the most eagerly awaited
Mumbai: The last time Abhishek Sharma padded up at the Wankhede Stadium, he blazed his way to 135 off 54 balls in an Indian jersey against England. In his previous IPL outing, last week, Abhishek was equally devastating with his 54-ball 135 against Punjab Kings.
In SRH’s orange, Abhishek becomes doubly dangerous in combination with Australia’s top order maverick Travis Head. Collectively, Abhishek and Head have won only two out of six Powerplays, yet. These numbers won’t ease any pressure off Mumbai Indians’ bowling attack, as they brace up for one of their stiffest tests in the competition on Wankhede’s true batting surface on Thursday.
One of the two destructive partnerships from Abhishek and Head came in their previous faceoff against Punjab Kings. The match ceased to be a contest by the time they were separated on 171 in the 13th over, chasing a mammoth 246.
“We haven’t had our team meeting yet. But I will give my inputs on Abhishek, when we do,” MI’s Naman Dhir said of his state teammate in domestic cricket.
Even without the volume of runs that they had at the mid-way stage of the tournament last year, Travi-shek are a thing – one of the most feared opening combines in the league.
“Some people have done some research on the number of false shots they have had leading to their wickets. It’s very high,” Daniel Vettori, SRH’s head coach said on match-eve. “Normally batsmen get away with those sorts of things. So, I think there’s an element of luck. Abhishek had a run out early on. There’s an element of team scouting (by opposition) as well, an element of understanding of how those two are going to go about it. All that combines to a couple of performances where we didn’t get the runs that we were used to getting from them. Their opening partnership has been critical to our success. The two games that we’ve won so far, they’ve been big contributors.”
The two left-handers have defied match-up theorems, so popular in T20 cricket, and left opposing bowlers with all the thinking to do. While a bulk of Abhishek’s runs came in the previous match, Head has been consistently threatening, with his 214 season runs, the most among SRH batters.
“When you look at when we’ve been successful in the Powerplay, I feel like that Abhi and Travis have just been able to play their shots and deal with any ball on merit. Because there’s a reputation of aggressive play and all-out attack, when the dismissals do come, people surmise that it could be slightly reckless, but that’s not the way I view it,” said Vettori.
“Bowlers are allowed to bowl well, and you can’t succeed all the time. But I know how much thought Abhi and Travis put into their batting, how much they assess conditions, bowlers. And they know that when the ball’s there, they want to hit it. At no stage do I feel like they’re being reckless. I think they’re just very good players who have a lot of shots.”
