Discarded Indian batter Hanuma Vihari has showered praise on the West Indies opening batter Shai Hope, who has been in red-hot form in the ongoing five-match T20I series against India, which is currently levelled 2-2.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Vihari asserted that only a few batters who visited India displayed such domination. He added that certain IPL franchises would be keen to acquire his services at the IPL 2027 mini-auction.
“Very few batters come to India and dominate like this. Shai Hope has also done it close to the IPL auction, so he may get a contract. He has made the best use of this opportunity. He could not have played any better to prove his skills and show that he is available. I think in the mini auction, many teams will target him. If he is batting like this, they should definitely target him,” Vihari said on his YouTube channel.
West Indies captain Hope is having a dominant T20I series, scoring two individual centuries to level the five-match series at 2-2. Further, Vihari reckoned that it was a good toss to lose for the visitors, adding that SRH won the majority of their home games while batting first at this venue.
“India won the toss and opted to bowl. I think it was a good toss to lose for the West Indies. I’ll tell you why. If you look at this year’s IPL, how many matches did SRH win batting first at home? They won most of the matches batting first. The reason, the surface gets slower as the game progresses, and there is no dew. Taking that into consideration, and also because it is a high-scoring pitch, as we saw in the IPL as well, it was a good toss to lose for the West Indies,” he added.
