Former England cricketer Nick Knight is impressed with the way Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) star opener Jos Buttler is scoring runs game after game.
The top-order English batter is on a run-scoring spree in the ongoing TATA IPL and there’s no stopping him. In the most exciting IPL season, the explosive right-handed batsman is leading the Orange Cap race by a margin of more than a hundred runs.
Knight has applauded Buttler for not taking the success of the previous game every time he walks into the field and taking his time to get used to the pitch and conditions and then constructs his innings accordingly.
Speaking on Cricket Live on Star Sports, Knight said: “What impressed me hugely about Jos Buttler is the way he’s started every innings. I mean if we look at the outcome of his innings, mostly it’s either the 50s or 100s, he’s (looking) in a different gear. (But) He tends to forget what he did in the previous game and starts afresh. (He) Hasn’t taken his form for granted at all. He’s giving himself a few balls to get in and then play those big shots.”
Former England spinner Graeme Swann, however, has cautioned Rajasthan Royals to not rely heavily on Buttler and advised the middle-order batters to start scoring runs in the middle overs.
Swann reckoned that scoring at a decent pace in the middle overs will augur well for the teams in the upcoming games as the pitches will slow down at the far end of the tournament while most of the Rajasthan batters love batting on fast surfaces.
Speaking on Cricket Live on Star Sports, Swann said:”The worrying thing from Rajasthan Royals’ point of view, if there is something they need to worry about, is that at the back end of the tournament the wickets are going to slow down where it will start skidding more. Up until now, they’ve played on some brilliant batting tracks and the RR batting has been so good that they’ve won every game.”
“They’ve been too far ahead of every team. But with the wickets turning and getting slow (as the tournament progresses) may distract them going forward and they might lose some close games. So, they’ll have to find a way because it cannot always be smash-smash-smash, and they can’t heavily rely on Buttler,” he added.
Swann signed-off by saying: “They (RR) need to find a way in the middle overs to score those 10-20 runs extra even in low scoring games.”
On Monday (May 2), the Sanju Samson-led RR went down against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by seven wickets at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai and will now be up against Punjab Kings (PBKS) at the same venue on Saturday (May 7).
With six wins from 10 games so far in the ongoing season, the inaugural IPL champions are sitting at the third place in the ten-team standings with 12 points in their kitty. Gujarat Titans (GT) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) hold the first and second place respectively in the points-table.