Legendary Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar believes batsmen who are used as an impact player could not perform well due to the lack of warmup which the fielding provides.
MS Dhoni might be playing his final season but he is not alone. Fellow CSK batsman Ambati Rayudu is also at the end of his career. Unlike Dhoni, he is not performing at his peak level with the bat. The former Indian cricketer has amassed 83 runs in eight games at an average of 16.60, which is the lowest aggregate in his 14-year career in the IPL.
He is mainly been utilized by CSK as an Impact Player in IPL 2023. It was the same on Thursday when CSK faced Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur. Aakash Singh, a left-arm bowler, was replaced by Rayudu as an impact player. But the right-handed batsman had a bad outing with the bat.
While chasing 203, Rayudu came out to bat at no 5 and went for the big shot against Ravichandran Ashwin but was caught at the deep midwicket boundary by Jason Holder. Gavaskar who was in the commentator box reacted to Ambati’s failure.
Gavaskar went on to give the example of Delhi Capitals batsman Prithvi Shaw to elaborate his point. “You must field. You cannot simply walk up to the pitch and begin smashing the ball. No, you can’t. This happened to Prithvi Shaw as well. He recently tried to come out to bat but was ineffective. No fielding is equal to no scoring. Rayudu was gone for a second-ball duck.”
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