‘Shreyas is a complete package’

Shreyas Gopal has become an integral part of Rajasthan Royals’ campaign this season, giving regular breakthroughs besides a couple of crucial cameos with the bat. Skipper Steve Smith showered high praise on the Bengaluru leg-spinner calling him a complete package.

“He has been terrific for us,” said Smith when asked about Shreyas. “Every time we have given him the ball, he has done a job for us. He has taken wickets, big wickets mind you.

“He has got big players out, which is really important. He is confident in his skill-set. He is bowling good variations, both in his pace and different ball, googlies and sliders and leg-spinners. He is mixing things up which I think is what you need to do as a leg-spinner,” he observed.

‘Underrated batting’

Indeed, Shreyas has scalped some big fish like Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Quinton de Kock, Rohit Sharma, Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey and Chris Lynn. He has also chipped in with a couple of match-winning cameos. His unbeaten 13 helped RR beat Mumbai in tense chase while his 9-ball-18 set up a successful chase against KKR.

“I think his batting is underrated as well,” Smith noted. “He has come in and played some very handy cameos for us at the end that have helped us get over the line on a couple of occasions and taken some really good catches throughout the tournament as well.

“He is a complete package that’s been huge for us this year. I think he is going to take a lot of confidence from the way he has bowled throughout the season and hopefully take that to the future as well.”