Picture after final ball of Day 1 of India vs Australia 5th Test.© AFP

Former Australia cricketer Tom Moody picked Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain Pat Cummins, openers Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head, and Heinrich Klaasen as front-runners to be retained by the franchise ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction. Moody, who has coached SRH in two different stints between 2013 to 2022, backed the core players of the franchise to be retained after finishing as runners-up of the 2024 season. Head, Abhishek and Klaasen were the top run-getters for the side in the memorable season and played a key role in their campaign to the final.

Head scored 567 runs including a century and four fifties while Abhishek hammered 484 runs with the help of three half-centuries. Klaasen accumulated 479 runs in the season including four half-centuries.

“When I look at SRH, they’ve got one of the tougher jobs among franchises during this retention period. At the top, I’d look to secure captain Pat Cummins, followed by Travis Head and then Abhishek Sharma,” Moody told Star Sports.

The Australian further added that all-rounders Nitish Reddy (the fourth-highest run-getter for the franchise in 2024) and Abdul Samad, who scored 182 runs in the last season at a strike rate of 168.51, should also be considered for retention.

“I’d extend it even further, which would be costly, but I think it’s worth it to retain a player of Heinrich Klaasen’s calibre. Then there’s Nitish Reddy, who has recently been capped, and I believe they must secure him before he enters the auction. Among uncapped players, I’d definitely consider Abdul Samad, who is a rare talent. He’s a powerful hitter who can come into the middle order and change the game,” he added.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises can retain a total of six players from their existing squad. This can be either via retention or by using the Right to Match (RTM) option. The six retentions/RTMs can have a maximum of five capped players (Indian & Overseas) and a maximum of two uncapped players.

The auction purse for the franchises has been set at Rs 120 crore for IPL 2025. The last date for the franchises to finalise their retention list is October 31.

File photo of Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya© BCCI/IPL

Former Australia cricketer Tom Moody gave a huge thumbs-down to the pitch at the Brian Lara Cricket Stadium in Trinidad used for the first semi-final of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 between South Africa and Afghanistan, saying the surface was not fit to host any cricket match. The pitch offered huge lateral movement for fast bowlers and also offered excessive inconsistent bounce, as some balls flew off the surface, while others stayed really low. Amidst challenging conditions, South Africa were at their fiery best to bowl out Afghanistan for just 56 and chased down the total in 8.5 overs to seal their spot in the final at Barbados on Sunday.

“I don’t think you’d want to see it in any game, to be honest with you. You want a fair contest between bat and ball and I’m not advocating that we need to have surfaces that you need 200 runs. But you need a consistent bounce, that is the most important thing. Any batter would hold their hands up and say, that is the most important thing.”

“If you’ve got one ball that’s hitting the toe of your bat or one that you feel like you’re going to punch with your gloves at the same length, that is a very difficult challenge to combat. If you’ve got sidewards movement or swing or spin, that’s a different challenge, but at least there’s some sort of consistency and you can come up with some sort of strategy and method to combat that and I don’t think it was good enough.”

“I actually covered two games in Trinidad at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy and the surface was pretty similar. You see this sort of crazy paving, if I could put it that way, where a lot of dense grass was gathered around those cracks and you could just tell that was the thing that promoted the inconsistency of bounce. So therefore, it’ll be something that they’ll reflect on, if not reflecting on already and thinking, well, we’ve got this wrong,” said Moody on ESPNCricinfo’s TimeOut show.

Similar views were echoed by former Zimbabwe batter Andy Flower. “You saw some interesting visual shots from above the square and a couple of the commentators referenced this being a brand-new pitch and perhaps they could have used a pitch that had been used previously and therefore you knew that it could use a certain type of bounce.”

“That’s certainly something more consistent and predictable, but those shots showed that crazy paving-type effect and that those blocks and the cracks around those blocks produced this wild variance in bounce. And as a batter, you’re trying to predict where the ball is going to be. You want to meet it somewhere near the middle of the bat at least.”

“And on this pitch, it was almost impossible to do that on any consistent basis at all. I thought it was actually a little bit dangerous. A couple of balls flew off a length around sort of shoulder, neck, chin height of the South African quicks and one of them flew over Quinton de Kock, the keeper’s head and gloves for four byes, and I was pleased that no one got hurt.”

Flower also felt the pitch at Trinidad reminded them of how tough pitches were during the New York leg of the competition, where South Africa won three matches.

“We saw a little bit of a similar pitch in New York in the early part of the competition, which wasn’t good enough for international quality quicks. And then we saw it again today and it produced a complete mismatch.”

“And you can’t blame Afghanistan for doing what they did at the toss. They had such an excellent record batting first and then defending with a very good, varied attack of their own. But the bat first on there was a really tough ask. You didn’t know what a good score would be and they were just blown away.”

Tom Moody slammed Sanju Samson over his “tactical blunder” against SRH.© BCCI

The race to the playoffs of IPL 2024 is now picking pace. While Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals have already sealed the berth for themselves, a total of five teams are still in race for the remaining two spots. Chennai Super Kings, SunRisers Hyderabad, Delhi Capitals, Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Lucknow Super Giants are the teams fighting for the top-4 finish. Among the remaining crucial games will be the RCB vs CSK match in Bengaluru on May 18.

While the winner of the game will get closer to IPL 2024 playoffs, the losing side will be eliminated from the tournament. Former India stars Irfan Pathan, Ambati Rayudu, Mohammad Kaif and ex-Australia players Matthew Hayden and Tom Moody told Star Sports as quoted by Hindustan Times that it will be CSK and not RCB, who will make it to the playoffs.

“Kolkata, Rajasthan, Hyderabad and… Chennai Super Kings are my picks. Because I feel CSK will find some or the other way to make the Playoffs. They are a legacy team,” said Irfan Pathan.

Meanwhile, former CSK star Ambati Rayudu said, “My top four predictions for now will be KKR at the top, followed by Chennai Super Kings at second. RR and SRH the other two.”

Mohammad Kaif, who also holds the experience of playing 29 IPL matches, said, “At the top for me would be KKR. At No. 2 would be (Rajasthan) Royals. At third would be (Sunrisers) Hyderabad and at the 4th position I would bank on CSK because they know how to perform in the big matches.”

“My top four, in no particular order, are… well, one has actually qualified. KKR are certainly there. I’m going to go with Rajasthan Royals. They have to beat this poor slump that they find themselves in (losing three matches in a row). Then I’ll pick Sunrisers Hyderabad since they have their matches back home and then CSK to win that derby against RCB on May 18,” said former CSK player Matthew Hayden.

“My top four in the Playoffs would be KKR at first place, Rajasthan Royals in the second position, Sunrisers Hyderabad at third and just falling into that fourth position, Chennai Super Kings,” said ex-SRH coach Tom Moody.

Punjab Kings are bottom of IPL 2024 points table© BCCI/Sportzpics