Sunil Narine is having a dream tournament with the bat so far in IPL 2024. He also went on to score his first century in any format recently.
When IPL 2024 started, hardly anyone would have imagined of the mayhem Sunil Narine has created in the initial matches of the tournament. The mystery spinner was promoted to open the innings for Kolkata Knight Riders in a big surprise. Narine has previously opened for KKR, but his weaknesses were soon found out by the quality of bowling in the IPL.
But this year, Narine has found answers to all the questions thrown at him. He has smacked both the fast bowlers and the spinners with utter demolition so far. In 6 matches, he has scored 276 runs at an average of 46 and a strike rate of 187.75. He also has a century to his name in the process, which he smashed against the best team of this season till now, Rajasthan Royals. This was also his first ever century in any format of cricket.
Australian allrounder Ashton Agar has drawn inspiration from Sunil Narine for his recent batting exploits in IPL 2024. Agar believed that he would love the chance to bat up the order but there is still some work left to do.
“I love seeing him (Sunil Narine) opening the batting and playing with such freedom. I think we’ve actually got quite similar bat swings. Getting that opportunity would probably be the next step. Having a real crack at the top of the order would be something I’d love to do. But there’s a hell of a lot of work that has to go in into that,” Agar said.
Agar went on to say that he can be effective with his batting and can add more value to teams. He is working hard on being an effective white-ball hitter.
“I really think I can bring value to teams with the bat. But it’s up to me to keep putting in the work. This opportunity now gives me the chance to specialise a little bit more: take it away from the red-ball style of batting and really get specific on what I need to do to be a really effective hitter in white-ball cricket all throughout the order,” the 30-year-old allrounder added.
Ashton Agar is primarily a left-arm spinner but he has proved his batting on a no. of times in international cricket. He scored a magnificent 98 on his Test debut during the first Test of 2013 Ashes, played at Nottingham. His innings came while batting at No. 11.
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Agar is currently working hard with his personal batting coach Viv Paver and Beau Casson to become an effective allrounder in T20 cricket. He has also opened the batting for Australia in two T20Is in 2022, but without much success.
Agar recently opted to become a freelance player by not signing for a contract for his state Western Australia. But he will be available to play for his state whenever he is available. Despite not having a state contract, he committed to play for Australia whenever required.
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