NEWS
Follow UsWest Indies batting legend Brian Lara felt that SRH should pick a local player for the captain's role and can build a team around Jason Holder following a disastrous IPL 2021 where they finished bottom of the table with just three wins from 14 games.
"Jason Holder is the shining light in a disastrous season. Im not sure if he is a out and out T20 player, but I feel they can build a team around him," Lara told Cricket.com.
Lara pointed out the disadvantage of having an overseas player as the captain as it does not allow teams to be flexible with their foreign recruits for the four slots in playing XI.
"Its always great to have a local player to lead the side because you only have four selections in the playing XI and you are carrying the captain in that. There is a big auction coming up and SRH have a lot of shaking up to do. Let's see how they will get the right group to move forward," he said.
SRH went through a major captaincy change as they axed David Warner at the end of the first leg and handed reins over to Kane Williamson, but it did little to change their fortunes as they managed just two wins in the UAE leg.
"It's tough to pinpoint any positives. Rashid Khan was not at his best. They lost Jonny Bairstow and they got Jason Roy, there is not much they gained from that," Lara said.
On Friday, defending champions Mumbai Indians bowed out in the group stages despite beating SRH by 42 runs. Lara said that the team had missed the level of performance at the beginning of the season.
"Mumbai scored their highest ever total in the IPL, so where was 75% of that effort in previous matches which would've kept them in the tournament. They went from abysmal to outstanding."
Lara praised Ishan Kishan (84 off 32 balls) and Suryakumar Yadav (82 not out off 40 balls) which took Mumbai to their highest ever IPL total of 235 and hoped that MI will carry the positives from the final match into the next season.
"It was about personality, the way Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav batted so well. The IPL is just six months away so I think they will carry this into the next tournament just like CSK did from IPL 2020."
The Trinidadian felt that the performances from Kishan and Suryakumar will come as relief to India with the T20 World Cup on the horizon.
"Mumbai Indians had an equation which was almost impossible but they gave it a go. But they will be happy that the Indian players got good runs ahead of World Cup," Lara said.
For the first time in its history, IPL had the final two group games kicking off at the same time with RCB taking DC in Dubai and SRH playing MI at Abu Dhabi. Lara said that it was difficult to keep up with two simultaneous games, but the amount of runs scored made it entertaining.
"Its a double header and it was difficult for us to keep track of what was happening, but about 400 runs were scored over 40 overs, so its entertaining," he said.