Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain Pat Cummins was baffled after Chennai Super Kings (CSK) won the toss, and Ruturaj Gaikwad told Ravi Shastri that they would be batting first during their last home game of the season on Monday (May 18) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennnai. This is a must-win clash for the hosts in the playoff race.
Ruturaj’s decision came as a surprise, as it was the first time this season that CSK won the toss and chose to bat first in his captaincy tenure. In fact, it is only the second time this season that a team decided to not bowl after winning the toss at the Chepauk. In fact, this is only the third instance of a team batting first in a night game after the coin fell in their favor.
Pat Cummins Left Baffled
As Ruturaj started to speak to Ravi Shastri and declared they are batting first, Cummins was evidently surprised. He turned around and was questioning someone in the SRH camp over the call. Later, the SRH captain told Shastri that he would have bowled first if they won the toss.
Cummins has admitted multiple times through the course of this season that he is not good at reading pitches. The Australian announced that SRH has made no changes to their playing XI for the big game despite suffering an 82-run defeat to the Gujarat Titans (GT) in their last game.
At the toss, Cummins backed his team to bounce back and defended their aggressive style with the bat despite the chances of failure.
“You know, it’s T20 cricket, IPL, you’ve got to kind of buy into a certain style, even if it doesn’t work every night and I think our guys have done that really well. But that’s your strength. You’ve got to back your ability. The mood’s been great. We know the way we play is probably not going to work every single game, but it’s going to be exciting. So, we think it’s our best style, so we’ll just keep leaning into that aggressiveness,” said Cummins.
SRH will qualify for the playoffs with a victory, while a defeat could mean that their final league stage game is against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in Hyderabad (SRH) on Friday (May 22).