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Updated April 13th, 2021 at 12:40 IST

Michael Vaughan & Stuart Broad slam Rajasthan for not allowing Buttler to open the innings

Michael Vaughan & Stuart Broad have expressed disappointment after Rajasthan Royals did not make Jos Buttler open the innings against Punjab Kings on Monday

Reported by: Karthik Nair
(Image Courtesy: AP/MichaelVaughanOfficial/Facebook/@IPL/Twitter)
(Image Courtesy: AP/MichaelVaughanOfficial/Facebook/@IPL/Twitter) | Image:self
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Veteran English cricketers including the likes of Michael Vaughan, and, Stuart Broad have lashed out at Rajasthan Royals for not sending their star player Jos Buttler up the order to open the innings for them during their IPL 2021 season-opener against northern-rivals Punjab Kings at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Monday. 

Buttler, who usually opens the innings for the 2008 winners had come out to bat at number four while his England team-mate Ben Stokes had opened the innings as a pinch-hitter. In fact, the Royals had shuffled their batting order in the second half of the IPL 2020 with Stokes opening the innings, and, Buttler batting in the middle-order.

'What are you thinking?'

After Stokes had come out to open the innings along with Manan Vohra during Rajasthan's mammoth chase of 222, a gutted Michael Vaughan took to Twitter and asked the former champions what they were thinking since they did not allow the English limited-overs, specialist, to face the new ball up front.

Vaughan's countryman Stuart Broad took to the micro-blogging site and wondered why was Jos Buttler not made to open the innings or keep wickets. Giving further clarification on the same, the English Test specialist mentioned that he is the best opening wicket-keeper-batsman in the world and since he does it for his national team i.e. England, why wouldn’t he be able to do it at the domestic level?

Buttler plays a cameo knock during his short stay at the crease

Stokes ended up putting RR on the backfoot in the very first over itself after he was caught & bowled by new-ball bowler Mohammed Shami without troubling the scorers. Buttler on the other hand who had come out after Manan Vohra's dismissal when the scorecard read 25/2 in the fourth over meant business straightaway as he went after the Punjab bowlers. His cameo innings was cut short when he was castled by Jhye Richardson.

This happened in the eighth over of RR's run chase. On the third delivery, Richardson had bowled a picture-perfect yorker on the middle-stump line and even though the 2019 World Cup winner attempted to pick it, it was in vain as he ended up missing the ball completely and had his furniture disturbed.

Coming back to the contest, Rajasthan skipper Sanju Samson played a sheet anchor's role to near perfection with his second-half blitzkrieg. He registered the first century of the ongoing season and scored a quickfire 63-ball 119. Despite his gutsy knock, it was a case of so near, yet so far for the Royals as they ended up on the losing side by a margin of just four runs. 

(Image Courtesy: AP/MichaelVaughanOfficial/Facebook/@IPL/Twitter)
 

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Published April 13th, 2021 at 12:40 IST

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