Former Australian all-rounder Tom Moody has backed Jake Fraser-McGurk to open the innings for Delhi Capitals if they want to reach the Indian Premier League 2024 playoffs. The youngster was able to make an instant impact as he scored a fine knock of 55 runs off 35 balls against Lucknow Super Giants at the Ekana Cricket Stadium, on Friday.
The 22-year-old smashed two sixes at the start of his innings and was able to hit the ground running on his IPL debut. He scored two fours and five sixes in his blistering knock to help his team chase down the target of 168 with six wickets in hand.
McGurk, who batted at one down for Delhi Capitals, also smashed Krunal Pandya for a hat-trick of sixes. Meanwhile, Prithvi Shaw and David Warner are currently opening the innings for Delhi Capitals.
On the other hand, the 22-year-old scored 257 runs in nine matches of Big Bash League 2023-24 while playing for Melbourne Renegades. The youngster batted at number three for the Renegades.
“What we saw from Fraser-McGurk tonight. You want him to face every single ball in the power play because he’s got no off button and he’ll go and go hard. Uh, there’s yes, there’s a lot of experience there, but there’s a huge amount of upside to what he can offer and Dehi are in a position where they need to just win games of cricket, so they need to risk their game to accumulate wins,” Tom Moody said while speaking on Star Sports.
The former SRH head coach wants Delhi Capitals to play aggressively with the bat and said they can’t expect to advance in the tournament if they adopt a conservative approach.
“They can’t play conservatively and expect to play finals from where there are, you know, played six games, only won two. So they need to play a really aggressive brand of cricket, and their mindset needs to be aggressive. Therefore, their selection and the way they structure their side needs to also back that philosophy. So, for me, Fraser McGurk needs to be batting at the top of the order,” Moody added.
Delhi Capitals will next take on Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Wednesday.
