Shane Watson full of praise for IPL teammates AB de Villiers and Sarfaraz Khan
Former Australian all-rounder Shane Watson has heaped praise on Indian youngster Sarfaraz Khan after the 18-year-old’s brilliant performance with the bat against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). Sarfaraz scored an unbeaten 35 from just 10 balls after coming into bat after the loss of AB de Villiers’ wicket.
“Sarfaraz is an incredible young man and there is no doubt that he has worked extremely hard to get all kinds of shots right. The control over shots he has, never seen before for a young talent like him,” Watson said.
“It shows he has practiced hell of a lot, and we saw him tonight.”
Watson, who retired from international cricket after the World T20 recently, also spoke about his new teammate de Villiers. The South African Test and ODI captain was named the Man of the Match for his knock of 82.
"What I saw is as good as the best batting I have ever seen. He didn't look like taking risk at all in his entire innings. One shot he played off the backfoot for a six is an incredible shot to play, and he does it with so much of ease is really a pleasure to watch. He executes his shots incredibly well," Watson added.
Watson has often opened the batting for Australia and Rajasthan Royals in the past, but mentioned that he is completely fine with batting down the order for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
"This I saw happening in the previous season when I was playing as a rival for Rajasthan Royals. So, why should one change the order when the top three are delivering. You need to take early wickets, otherwise you are in deep trouble, and that's what exactly happened tonight," he said.
The 34-year-old also spoke about his relationship with West Indian batsman Chris Gayle, with whom he has had some run-ins over his career.
"Relations with Gayle has been very good so far. We had couple of commercials as well which gave us a chance to know each other better after few run-ins in the past. Don't know how it works when I am playing alongside him in one team. This is the beauty of cricket," he said.
Bought for Rs. 9.5 cr at the auction earlier this year, Watson put in a solid performance in his first match for RCB. He scored 19 runs from just 8 balls, an innings which included three consecutive sixes against the bowling of Karn Sharma. He then picked up figures of 2/30, including the wicket of David Warner.