Sarfaraz is a future star for India: VVS Laxman

He along with Sunrisers’ bowling coach and spin legend Muthiah Muralitharan were seen engaging in an intense planning from the dug-out when Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers were batting in full-flow at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday.

Sunrisers batting coach VVS Laxman may be disappointed with his team's defeat in the first game of IPL 9, but the legendary Indian batsman had special praise for U-19 star and RCB finisher Sarfaraz Khan.

Laxman also feels that it was Sarfaraz, who took the game away from them, when the ‘enormously talented’ Mustafizur Rahman had pulled it back by dismissing AB and Watson in quick succession.

Here is what Laxman had to say after the match.

Not the best of the starts to the tournament but again, it is not often that you score 180-plus and end up on the losing side.

Yes, I thought it was a good effort from the batsmen, likewise from the bowlers to pull things back a bit after the partnership between Virat and AB. Unfortunately we lost Ashish Nehra in the 11th over. But still the other bowlers did well until Sarfaraz came out with that sensational innings. After that we knew it was going to be a big challenge and we wanted one of our top three to go and get a big hundred. David Warner was on his way but unfortunately he got out after a very good fifty. On the whole we didn’t execute our defensive bowling plans as well as we would have liked to.

Talk about the young bowler from Bangladesh, Mustafizur Rahman. Playing his first IPL game, he bowled so brilliantly with an economy rate (6.50) belying the high-scoring match.

He is one of the most exciting bowlers in world cricket. Since his international debut against India, he has made enormous progress. This is the first time I am spending some time with him and I can see that he has got a lot of confidence in his skills. He has a lot of variations and he knows when to use them. His work ethic is fantastic. He practises all his deliveries religiously in the nets. He is not only talented but also works very hard to ensure that he has control over his variations. It was fantastic to see him bowl the way he did against batsmen like Virat, AB and Watson on a wicket that had a lot for the batsmen, when other bowlers were going for runs.

What was the reason behind sending Eoin Morgan below Naman Ojha and Deepak Hooda?

Yes, it was a tough decision. The left-right combination would have been crucial. But since we were chasing a big target, we wanted Morgan to come in a little late at 5 – because he is excellent batting in the death – and have Naman build a partnership with Moises (Henriques). But unfortunately Naman got out without troubling the scorers, and we lost wickets in clusters. When Warner was batting, we were on course. After his dismissal the momentum shifted towards RCB. By the time Morgan went in to bat, there was too much pressure for him to get going.

How difficult was it to choose between Morgan and Kane Williamson?

It was a tough one, but Moises had done very well for us at No. 3 last year, and Warner and Shikhar (Dhawan) have been very good as our opening pair. With the top three slots filled, it was not easy to get Kane in. Also, he is not quite 100 per cent fit. He has minor hamstring niggles which I am sure he will recover from in the next week or so.

You spoke about Sarfaraz’s innings. What do you make of the boy?

I am very impressed with him. He is a young boy but the kind of confidence he shows and his body language is really good to see. It bodes very well for Indian cricket to see such youngsters do well against international bowlers at this level. Some of the shots that he played were mind-boggling.

That partnership between AB and Virat – even though you are sitting in the opposition dugout, it is hard not to enjoy such display of batting, isn’t it?

It was magic. It is amazing to see the way Virat continues to score so consistently for whichever team he plays and whatever position he bats at. It is great to see the kind of level he has taken his T20 batting to; he is one of the most exciting batsmen in world cricket. His consistency and adaptability is phenomenal.

From RCB’s point of view it was good to see AB de Villiers perform like that. He didn’t have a great World Twenty20 and he must be disappointed that South Africa, despite being one of the strongest teams in the tournament, didn’t qualify for the knockout stage. I am sure he wants to make it count in this IPL and this was a great start for him. That is one power-packed batting order that RCB have with Gayle, Virat and AB in top-three and Watson coming in as well. Now they also have Stuart Binny, Sarfaraz and Kedar Jadhav, which make their line-up very formidable.

Image: Former Indian batsman VVS Laxman

Photograph: Hitesh Harisinghani/Rediff.com

Courtesy: IPLT20.com