New Delhi: Sunrisers Hyderabad star Heinrich Klassen He has made his point both with the bat and in press conferences during IPL 2026, showing that he is not affected by the criticism regarding his scoring pace. Klassen’s 59 off 39 balls proved decisive as SRH posted 194/9 and edged past chennai super kings A 10-point lead in a tight game.Although Klassen leads the run-scoring charts this season, his batting average has declined compared to last year, raising concerns. But the South African batsman dismissed the noise, stressing that game awareness was more important than numbers. “I’ve been put in difficult situations and you have to take responsibility and be mature about it. You can’t just tee off – that’s not how the game works. We’re paid to do this job and I don’t care about the strike rate,” Klassen said, highlighting his approach to adapting to conditions and building meaningful innings.‘You can’t just tee off’: Klassen explains his approachKlassen explained that his role often requires stability rather than outright aggression, especially when early wickets are falling. “I know there’s been a lot of talk this season about my shooting percentage, but I’ve been putting the team in good positions. I’m just doing my job,” he said. He highlighted the challenges, adding that situations like losing multiple wickets soon forced him to rein in his natural attacking instincts. “It’s not like I can just tee off. If you lose another wicket, you’re five runs behind. So, the key is to find different ways to score 10 runs per over and still get good runs on the board.”His innings progressed slowly, with SRH scoring just 30 runs at the end of the powerplay, which further explained his cautious approach. Klassen’s knock and a brilliant performance of 59 off 22 shots Abhishek Sharmalaid the foundation for a competitive total, although bowlers like Jamie Overton and Anshul Kamboj kept CSK in the game.In reply, CSK threatened with contributions from Ayush Mhatre, Matthew Short and Sarfaraz Khan, but the SRH bowlers, led by Eshan Malinga and Nitish Kumar Reddy, kept their composure at the death.The win lifted SRH to fourth in the table, reinforcing Klassen’s point that impact is more important than visuals.
