IPL 2022: Piyush Chawla picks Kane Williamson's captaincy replacement for SRH vs PBKS clash

Piyush Chawla believes SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) shouldn't look ahead of senior fast-bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar while picking a captaincy replacement for Kane Williamson for Sunday's dead-rubber IPL 2022 match against Punjab Kings (PBKS).

Williamson flew back to New Zealand for the impending birth of his second child on Wednesday. At the time, it wasn't confirmed whether or not the SunRisers would make it to the playoffs. But a couple of games later, the Orange Army found themselves two points behind the top-four contestants and were eliminated.

Apart from Bhuvneshwar, Nicholas Pooran, who was recently handed West Indies' white-ball captaincy, and Aiden Markram are also possible options. But Chawla feels the pacer, with his current form, leadership experience and familiarity with the team, is the best interim replacement for Williamson. He told ESPNcricinfo:

"If you talk about experience, I think they can go back to Bhuvneshwar Kumar because he's an international player, has been a part of that team for a long time, the way he's bowling, he knows the bowling unit and knows the team environment. I don't think there's a better option than Bhuvneshwar Kumar."

So far, Bhuvneshwar has stood in as captain in six matches in the IPL, winning two and losing the other four. Meanwhile, Williamson's absence will also pave the way for New Zealand's hard-hitting all-rounder Glenn Phillips to enter the playing XI.

Chawla talked about Williamson shunting to No. 6 in the batting order in the last match, adding that the SunRisers shouldn't touch the stable-looking top order in the skipper's absence and instead play Phillips in the middle order. Chawla explained:

"Even if Phillips comes in for Kane Williamson, he should bat in the middle order only because of how well Priyam Garg batted in the last match. We were saying for a long time that Kane Williamson is better suited for the middle-order. He didn't get to play a lot of balls in the last match but the impact on the batting order was tangible."

The 25-year-old right-handed batter boasts a strike rate of 140.21 from 35 T20Is for the Kiwis. He already has two fifties and a century to his name.

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"Umran Malik will want to finish on a high" - Piyush Chawla

The season is coming to an end but the buzz around young pace sensation Umran Malik is not going to settle anytime soon.

The 22-year-old has picked up as many as 21 wickets in 13 matches so far but there are still doubts about his ability to manage the express pace. This is rooted in a handful of games where he has been quite expensive without taking wickets.

Chawla admitted that pace is a double-edged sword, saying that he'll need to find a balance similar to his spell of 3/23 against the Mumbai Indians (MI) and finish on a high. He concluded by saying:

"The way he has bowled in this tournament, he was leaking a lot of runs, then he picked some wickets, then he was costly again. So when there's such a big tournament, you expect that you won't have 14 good matches, some will go bad too. The kind of bowler he is, he gives so much pace to the batters to use that when he goes for runs, it's plenty of runs and when he takes wickets, it's plenty of wickets. But this is the last match, he'll want to finish on a high, bowl somewhat as he did in the previous game, and do something good for his team."

The SRH-PBKS match will be played at the Wankhede Stadium, starting at 7:30 pm IST.

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