Intentional effort to have youngsters in the team: SRH mentor VVS Laxman

Sunrisers Hyderabad batting mentor VVS Laxman, through a video released by the team on social media, revealed the motive behind signing a lot of youngsters from the IPL 2020 auctions.

VVS Laxman spoke about how the management felt the need to strengthen the domestic batting aspect in the squad, and as a result, SRH signed a bunch of young talents from the domestic circuit.

In the auction, it was a very intentional effort to have the youngsters. While they are youngsters, they are all the most prolific performers in domestic cricket. When you see the composition of our team, we had a lot of experienced players from both overseas and India. But when we look at the domestic players, we required to strengthen our batting, especially our middle-order batting. So we went with the performer in the last couple of seasons," VVS Laxman said.

While a host of big names were signed in the auctions by the franchises, SRH were content with focussing on youngsters and signed Priyam Garg (₹1.9 Crore), Virat Singh (₹1.9 Crore), Abdul Samad (₹20 lakh) and Bavanaka Sandeep (₹20 lakh).

SRH's other signings from the auctions were 25-year-old Sanjay Yadav (₹20 lakh) and foreign imports in Mitchell Marsh (₹2 lakh) and Fabian Allen (₹50 lakh).

📹🗣 @VVSLaxman281 talks about the lockdown, working with Trevor Bayliss & Brad Haddin and also sends a special message for the #OrangeArmy 🧡#IPL2020 #ReturnOfTheRiser pic.twitter.com/irKpG8bVeq

— SunRisers Hyderabad (@SunRisers) August 23, 2020

Empty stands won’t affect the quality of cricket: VVS Laxman

With the IPL set to be played in UAE from September 19, albeit without any fans in attendance, VVS Laxman opined that the absence of crowd during the IPL won’t affect the quality of cricket that will be on display.

“I can assure all the fans of the game that they will really enjoy the competition even though there won't be any crowd or any spectators on the ground. Don't ever think that the energy or the quality of cricket will come down,” VVS Laxman promised.

However, the former Sunrisers Hyderabad batsman is a bit wary about the slowness of the pitches that they may encounter in the UAE.

“Probably the wickets may be on the slower side but we have to just wait and see because we may just be surprised with the efforts put in by the ground staff. The outfield will be fantastic but the wickets are something that I hope will be well taken care of by the ground staff," he added.

All the matches of IPL 2020 will be played behind closed doors in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.