CHENNAI: Former India spinner and national selector Venkatapathy Raju echoed Punjab Kings head coach Ricky Ponting's thoughts and insisted that adaptation is the key for the success in T20s. Punjab Kings lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru after managing to post a sub-par on Sunday afternoon.
A disappointed Ponting said that the pitch was better than that the youngsters should take a leaf out of Virat Kohli's — who anchored RCB's chase — book and convert the starts into big stores. Raju agreed with Ponting stating that it is crucial to convert starts into big scores.
"I agree with Ponting that when a batter has spent some time in the middle and is aware of the conditions and has a good start he must convert them into a big score. As he said Virat was good and paced his innings well and finished the job," said Venkatapathy Raju.
"In T20s, you do not have time to settle down. So when a well set batter gets out suddenly, the next man in has no time to settle down. Invariably, many a time he gets out while trying accelerate the run rate, which is not good for the team," added the former Hyderabad captain.
The one common things among the teams that linger at the bottom of the table is the top order's inability to put maximum runs in the power play. But Raju insists that there is method in madness and states that runs depend also on the wicket and the quality of the attack. "Runs that a team makes in the power play is important. One must first hang out there in the middle, have a feel of the surface and then indulge in power hitting," said Raju. "Again runs (in powerplay) also depends upon the wicket and quality of bowling of the opposition. So if the bowling is tight in powerplay, one must try to score in the middle overs. The idea is to be flexible and attack at the appropriate time," opined Raju.