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'Vadapao ko roast kar diya' - Fans react as Hanuma Vihari says having a good bowling attack eases captaincy pressure

Hanuma Vihari talked at length about his experience of leading South Zone. Here's the full story with fan reactions.

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Rohit Kumar
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Hanuma Vihari led South Zone

Hanuma Vihari led South Zone (Source: Twitter)

Hanuma Vihari led South Zone to a dazzling victory over West Zone in the final of the Duleep Trophy 2023. After the marquee final Vihari opened up dissecting his role as the captain of South Zone. “It is nice to get one back against West Zone. They dominated us last year, although we got the first innings lead. We again got the innings lead in this match, so I reminded the boys of what happened last year,” Vihari said.

He talked further about serving as the captain of the South Zone team. “I loved it (captaincy). If you have a good bowling attack then the captaincy pressure comes down,” the skipper said. He then spoke in detail about why he prefers the zonal system in domestic cricket rather than differentiating sides such as India Red, India Blue and so on which was prevalent between 2016 to 2020.

Hanuma Vihari prefers the Zonal system over differentiating teams such as India Red, India Green, etc.

“The quality of cricket in this year’s Duleep Trophy was really good. I’m not just saying this because we won the tournament (laughs). When it was India Blue or India Green, the players went through the motions. Once it came back to the zonal format, the competitiveness went up. I hope it remains the same,” Vihari further stated.

He also talked at length about selecting V Koushik in the Playing XI which resulted to be a masterstroke for South Zone. “The reason why I picked Koushik ahead of (K.V.) Sasikanth is because there was a bit of a lack of discipline in the semifinal. We needed a bowler who could contain the runs and pick wickets at the same time. Koushik knows the conditions here well. I believed that picking him will give us control,” Vihari explained.

Notably, Hanuma Vihari is one of the many domestic players who merit selection in India’s Test team. Especially with Cheteshwar Pujara snubbed for the Caribbean tour, Vihari is someone who could have been a great replacement for him given the amount of experience he has under his belt.

Here’s how fans reacted:

India featured Hanuma Vihari