"Pat Cummins' Leadership Style Is Empowering, He Is Like MS Dhoni": Tom Moody
New Delhi [India] : Former Australian cricketer Tom Moody lauded Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) skipper Pat Cummins for his "empowering" and "inclusive" leadership style and compared him to India's World Cup-winning skipper MS Dhoni for his decision-making abilities.
Cummins, who won the ICC World Test Championship and the sixth 50-over Cricket World Cup title for Australia last year, was appointed as SRH this season, replacing Aiden Markram after being brought in for over Rs 20 crore. So far, Cummins has been impressive, having won two matches and lost two. Even in defeats, SRH has looked really strong and positive.
Speaking on ESPNCricinfo on Saturday, Moody lauded Cummins' inclusiveness as a captain, which he says comes naturally to him.
"The observations I am making, the leadership style Cummins has shown with the Australian team, that is a style of empowering people and not putting them under any pressure whatsoever. He has a lovely way of being inclusive with everyone, which is important in franchise cricket where you got players from all over the world. The strongest part is the Indian players, so it is really important that the leader connects with the Indians, from the most experienced to the inexperienced ones and has all on the same page," Moody said.
"Pat would do that seamlessly because that is the 'bloke' he is. He is a good person. He would do that naturally because of his natural leadership," he added.
Moody said that tactically, Moody is like Dhoni since he is prepared to take decisions others would not think about, like giving left-arm spinner Abhishek Sharma the first over to bowl against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Friday instead of the team's go-to powerplay pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar or Aiden Markram, another spin option.
"Tactically, as a captain or not, he has played enough to understand and navigate, how to captain in a t20 game. One thing I like about Cummins is that he is like MS Dhoni, he is prepared to make decisions that other people do not think about. But nearly makes you think why did not I think about that, like that Abhishek over."
"It was quite an odd decision considering you had arguably the best new-ball bowler in IPL history and Aiden Markram. There were plenty of ways that he could have started the inning, but he committed to his decision," added Moody.
The tactic by Cummins paid off and Abhishek gave up only seven runs in the first over.
Coming to the match, SRH won the toss and opted to bowl first. Rachin Ravindra (12) and skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad (26 in 21 balls, with three fours and a six) got out early, reducing CSK to 54/2 in 7.1 overs.
Then knocks from Shivam Dube (45 in 24 balls, with two fours and four boundaries), Ravindra Jadeja (31 in 23 balls, with four boundaries) and Ajinkya Rahane (35 in 30 balls, with two fours and six) took CSK to 165/5 in their 20 overs.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1/28), T Natarajan (1/39), skipper Cummins (1/29) and Jaydev Unadkat (1/29) were among the wickets for SRH.
In the run-chase, Travis Head (31 in 24 balls, with three fours and a six) and Abhishek Sharma (37 in 12 balls, with three fours and four sixes) started off really well, taking SRH to 106 in 9.4 overs. Aiden Markram scored a brilliant half-century (50 in 36 balls, with four boundaries and a six). Heinrich Klaasen (10*) and Nitish Reddy (11*) took SRH to a six-wicket win.
Moeen Ali (2/23) was the pick of the bowlers for CSK. Deepak Chahar and Maheesh Theekshana got wickets too.
Abhishek's explosive knock earned him the 'Player of the Match' award.
SRH has climbed to the fifth spot with two wins and two losses in four games, giving them four points. With the same win-loss ratio, CSK is at the third spot with four points due to a better run-rate.
