Virender Sehwag slams overseas star player for poor performance in IPL 2024

Former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag recently took a huge dig at the Punjab Kings stand captain Sam Curran after the team’s close loss against Gujarat Titans. Punjab Kings welcomed Gujarat Titans in their home ground in Mullanpur on Sunday night. 

Struggling for a victory in IPL 2024, the hosts yet again missed their captain Shikhar Dhawan due to a niggle in the match against Gujarat Titans. The Curran led side posted a below par total of 142 runs at the end of 20 overs, giving the visitors an easy win by three wickets.  

Virender Sehwag Mocks Punjab Kings captain Sam Curran for mediocre performances in IPL 2024

In a recent interview with Cricbuzz, the opening batter reflected on the mediocre performances by the young English all-rounder throughout IPL 2024. Punjab Kings welcomed Sam Curran for a whopping price of INR 18.5 crore and has struggled to justify his price tag ever since. 

Sehwag discussed that an all-rounder who Has an average bowling and average batting performances is ideally ‘useless’ considering he won’t win matches for a team franchise in a competitive tournament like the Indian Premier League. 

"I wouldn't keep Sam Curran as a batting all-rounder or a bowling all-rounder. Because such a player is of no use, who does some batting and some bowling. Either you win the game with your batting or win the game with your bowling. Either you hit the bullseye or you don't perform at all”, Sehwag opined. 

Punjab Kings bowlers tried their best to defend the low score And took the game towards the last over. However, the Gujarat bowlers overshadowed the hosts and dismissed the team by the end of 20 overs. Sehwag lauded the young Indian spinner Sai Kishore for his maiden four wicket haul in IPL 2024 along with the Afghanistan’s spin-duo Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad for their stellar performances.  

He added, "The effort with the ball was incredible, the commitment and fight was amazing, but it was not enough. The Afghanistan spinners are world class bowlers and Sai Kishore bowled really well, credit to them. That is the third time we have used that pitch, anything above 160 would have been a par total but we still fought well."

After the brutal loss, Punjab Kings now stands on the ninth position with four points and a negative net run rate of 0.292 on the IPL 2024 points table.