Heinrich Klaasen entered this season of the Indian Premier League carrying a few lingering self-doubts. The South African has been away from the intensity and grind of international cricket for nearly a year, a gap that can unsettle even the most seasoned players in a format as unforgiving as T20.
Determined to stay competitive, Klaasen explored new ways to keep himself in rhythm. If the first three matches are any indication, those efforts are paying off handsomely. With 145 runs at a strike rate of 147.95, including two half-centuries, the Sunrisers Hyderabad star has not only found his groove but shifted the pressure firmly onto the opposition — and then some.
In an online interaction, Klaasen reflected on his form and that of his team, his dominance against spin, his electric partnership with Nitish Kumar, and more. Excerpts:
Starting the IPL with back-to-back 50s must feel good…
Unfortunately we’ve lost two games, but on a personal note, it’s been a good start. One of my biggest concerns was not playing as much cricket as I used to. Can I still keep up with the standard that I set myself with? It’s been a pretty good start and hopefully this form will continue.
How have you adapted to stepping away from international cricket?
International cricket is a big miss in my game, but there are small things that I do that just keep me up to the pace of normal cricket speed. I’ve been working with a lady in Cape Town called Sherylle, who’s an eye doctor. We call it an EyeGym. It just helps you make a lot of decisions under pressure and in a certain amount of time. That has been working for me over the last year in making sure that my decision-making and reaction times are good.
It’s just that one percent that you have to take a little bit more care of and give yourself a little bit more training right before coming into a competition like this. Normally, you can have a week or two off before you come into a long tournament like this. I just had to change my training schedules and make small tweaks like that to make sure that I get up to speed as quickly as I can.
How would you assess Sunrisers Hyderabad’s performances so far?
It’s a tough question. I will give us about a six at this moment. We have played some brilliant cricket in parts, but we’re just losing the plot in the crucial phases of the game. We lose it so badly that it just puts us out of the game entirely.
If you take the game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, we lost three wickets in the PowerPlay. Same against Lucknow Super Giants.
I honestly do think the bowlers are hanging on exactly as planned. That aspect is doing very well. The rest of the batting unit is doing well. There are a lot of positives. I’ll say about 80% positive.
Our fielding in the first two games hasn’t been up to standard at all. In our last game, against LSG, it was better. We’re working on that, and we’re setting a new standard for ourselves to put teams under pressure and make sure we hang on to our catches. But it’s not at the standard that we set for ourselves, as it stands.
I’ll give us a six and not go with seven, which is an easy cop out. We want to get to eight and nine to make sure that we get some momentum. There’s no panic in the changing room yet. We’re looking forward to getting on a roll and putting all three compartments of the game together.
SRH’s batting line-up is probably the most fearsome in the league. But with Pat Cummins missing, there are some concerns over the bite in the bowling unit, at least on paper. What do you make of it?
Our batting has been good so far, but we’ve missed out on about 40 runs over the three games. So there’s still a lot of work to do for our batters.
Obviously, if you miss a bowler like Pat Cummins, it’s a loss for any team in any format. Same with (Brydon) Carse. The rest of the bowlers are super experienced, especially our pace department.
The wickets have been good in the two games in which we struggled in. We just didn’t execute with the bat like we wanted. It’s easy to say our bowlers don’t have the experience or are under the pump, but in the two games that we’ve lost, the batters left about 20 to 30 runs on the board.
We saw it against KKR, we put enough runs on the board… That’s our job. We need to get to that 220-230 mark. That’s why we have set up the team we have now, so we give our bowlers a proper chance at defending.
SRH’s spin pool looks relatively inexperienced with players like Harsh Dubey and Shivang Kumar. What have you made of their ability to work under pressure? Is that lack of experience really such a big factor, especially in the middle overs?
They’ve been fantastic so far. Our poor fielding makes their figures look bad. Our fielding has been poor against them, so that makes their figures look bad.
The team should take it on the chin and keep encouraging them (Harsh and Shivang) to do what they do.
Having faced them in the nets, I can tell you that they may be inexperienced on paper, but they’re definitely experienced in playing the game and know what to do with the plan.
They bowl extremely well. They haven’t really played on wickets that’ve been spinning too much. They’re just hanging on at the moment, picking up crucial wickets when we need it. I can’t wait till we get to a wicket that just suits them a little bit more, and then people will see the brilliant skill set that they have.
What do you make of Ishan Kishan the captain so far?
He’s been superb so far. He’s a guy who asks for advice. We’ve got a lot of experience in the changing room, so he leans on that as well. But his decision-making, the way he changes the ball, the way the team listens to him, has been phenomenal so far.
We’re in superb hands and luckily, he’s not an arrogant guy at all, which makes it a lot easier. He’s a really enjoyable captain to play under.
There are a lot of jokes in between which helps because this game brings quite a tough environment to play in.
He’s been superb and he has had some success in the domestic scene as well. I think his domestic team won a competition recently, so there’s a lot of experience in that aspect.
TraviShek’s wonderful starts — how much of a cushion does that give the team?
It depends on how you see it. Sometimes, when they go at 14 or 15 an over, you feel like the wicket is extremely flat or they make it look flat and you want to keep up with that pace. Sometimes that can put you under pressure a bit.
But having played with them for three seasons now, I do understand that you can play on tempo as well. They give you the luxury to hold on and get yourself in and then go again so that the run rate never really drops below 11 or 12.
How has your role in this side evolved?
It’s a role that I’ve played my whole life and in my whole career. You have to adapt to those situations and you have to be able to play different roles in the team. My role in the team is to keep on going if TraviShek and Ishan have put the opposition under pressure.
But the days that doesn’t happen, I need to make sure we get into a position to defend a total.
I know that’s my role. I have to play four or five different ways, but that’s just what is required to be a professional cricketer at this moment. Every game is going to present different situations. It takes a different set of skills to understand those things and execute plans accordingly.
You have a great partnership going with Nitish Kumar. How are you both finding a rhythm in the middle-order?
It helps when you play together for a couple of years. You start to understand each other, you understand what makes each other tick. Our communication this season has been incredible. We’ve been taking a lot of pressure off each other, especially from his side.
He’s been taking a lot of pressure off me at the start of my innings. So a lot of credit needs to go to Nitish.
He’s in form at the moment, so that makes it a lot easier as well to drop and change our plans as we go and to identify the bowlers each of us likes to take down.
He reminds me of playing with David Miller. In your career, you get a few guys you just enjoy batting with.
Nitish is extremely quick so when you feel like you’re under pressure a bit, you can always run two or three and make the over a little easier instead of just searching for boundaries.
Running between the wickets becomes a crucial part of the game then. I love seeing him grow as well. It’s just been fantastic this season and hopefully we can put on a couple of more big partnerships.
You have been known as the spin destroyer of SRH. How did that come about for you?
South Africa has some quality spinners and I’ve played a lot of four-day cricket at a stage where my career really needed it. It is a stage where probably all of those spinners played four-day cricket as well.
I’m used to the ball turning away from me. I faced a lot of Tabraiz Shamsi in the nets, who is a quality spinner as well.
A lot of training, a lot of hours have been spent experimenting. I’ve been in India for five to six years now. Over the years, I’ve gained some experience.
Earlier in my career, we went to Sri Lanka, where the ball actually spun quite a bit. We had to figure things out for ourselves and learn new tricks.
I’m very blessed to be able to play spin well. It’s always a challenge to keep taking them on because I know they’re looking to get my wicket.
Is it safe to say that you love playing in India against the spinners specifically?
The boundaries here are not the biggest in the world. We’re used to some big boundaries. But the wickets are fantastic, so it’s a nice place to come to. It’s still a big challenge. I know they’re coming for me and they know I’m coming for them.
This season, I see that they’ve got a couple of game plans, so I need to get back to doing some good homework against them and finding new ways of scoring against them.
Is there any Indian spinner that you enjoy playing against the most?
It’s an easy answer, Yuzi (Yuzvendra) Chahal. We’ve had a few great battles over the last couple of years. He’s a quality bowler and very clever.
I think we’re about 50-50 on winning those battles. He’s a good mate of mine as well, which makes it even better to fight against him on the pitch.
Does the IPL stand out in any way compared to the other leagues?
It’s by far the toughest there is in franchise cricket. I sometimes feel it’s tougher than international cricket. It depends on who you play but the standard of cricket and obviously the conditions play a big part.
Every year, you just see a new Indian player coming through who you never knew about.
The talent just sets the standard so high. It is by far the best competition in the world. There are a couple of tournaments they are striving to reach the same standard. But it’s tough.
Do you have a message for the Sunrisers Hyderabad faithful?
Just be patient. You can’t win a competition in the first week. We’re getting everything together and, hopefully, we can make it to the IPL playoffs. We will have an extremely good chance of winning the trophy then.
I think we’re long due and we’ve got the squad to win a trophy. Keep supporting us and we’re looking forward to producing some good performances.
