Multanpur: Abhishek Sharma The pre-match training session on Friday was not rushed. He strolled out, looked around and exchanged a few simple words in Punjabi with the ground staff, the kind of small talk that only comes when a place feels like your own. The Maharaja Yadavendra Singh International Stadium in Milanpur is not exactly close to the PCA Stadium, Mohali, but it is quite close. Close enough for memory to do the rest.
He spent a few moments near the pitch, bat in hand, tapping it almost absent-mindedly. It didn’t seem like much thinking, more like quiet curiosity, trying to understand what the surface might offer or take away. Only then did he join in his beating, and when he did, it was clean and unforced. No grand statement, just falling into place at the time. A few yards away, Travis Head told a different story. There was nothing about his session. His bat sound was sharp, sharp and crisp. Sir looked like he was rehearsing Ghalib. Together, the ‘Travishek’ duo offered a glimpse of what Sunrisers Hyderabad could be at their best – fluid, fearless and formidable in phases.
The problem is that those phases didn’t last long in this IPL season. For all their power, Sunrisers are interestingly breaking out at the top. Early wickets have disrupted momentum, leaving the middle-order to mend things more often than build on the platform. Henrik Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy have provided resistance, but the team has struggled to string together a complete performance. Even the bowling, which is expected to hold things together, has weakened. Harshal Patel and Jaydev Unaddict are yet to find consistency after a tough match against Lucknow. Punjab Kings, by contrast, seems to have settled into a rhythm that feels more durable than spectacular. Under the Shreyas Iyerhas a sense of the direction of his cricket. It’s not always flashy, but it’s effective. Chasing a total of 200-plus against Chennai Super Kings or adapting to a tough Malinpore pitch against Gujarat Titans, Punjab have shown they can adjust. More importantly, they have done it collectively. That ethos was on display again in their final outing, even if rain took away their result. Xavier Bartlett tore apart Kolkata’s top order before the heavens intervened, leaving Punjab to share the points rather than claim what looked like a third win in a row. Inside the dressing room, the messaging has been simple. As wicketkeeper and opening batsman Prabhasmaran Singh pointed out during a recent interview, individual milestones like getting an Orange Cap or a Purple Cap aren’t the driving force — the results are. This is reflected in contributions from various quarters. Cooper Connolly scored an unbeaten 72 against Gujarat, with pacer Vijaykumar Vaishak stepping up with the ball when needed. And then there is the level of Milanpur, which is still unknown. The first game here suggested it wasn’t going to be a straightforward batting track. A total of 160 proved competitive, the pitch enough to make the batsmen uncertain. He asked about the strategy as intended.
Poll
Which team do you think will perform better on the challenging Molanpur pitch?
On Saturday, it may make the same demand again. Familiarity can count for Punjab. For Sunrisers, it may come down to whether Abhishek and Head can make these promising net sessions a little more significant. Because at a level like this, the opening overs don’t just set the tone. They shape the entire game.
