Head coach Rahul Dravid admitted Wednesday that the Royals of Rajasthan could not afford another discharge after having slipped to the eighth on the table of the IPL points and that his team has “no option” other than to start “win quickly”. The Royals will come up against a Royal Challengers in Bengaluru fit in Minnaswamy Stadium on Thursday, and another reversal will make them really difficult for them to feed the aspirations in the playoffs. “It is a very important game for us, in fact, in each match from now on, like the position in which we are, we cannot afford to make many mistakes. This step is a tournament … a little halfway, we find ourselves in the lower half of the table,” said Dravid at the pre-match press conference.
“We have to start climbing this table quickly and we have to start winning matches quickly. There are no more options, no more likely to slip,” he added.
Dravid admitted that the Royals did not behave well in crisis situations in this tournament despite an excellent cricket in the patchs.
“We know that we have to play well to be still alive in this tournament. Now we have lost a few tight games to come, but we also played the right cricket.
“This is one of these tournaments where some balls go here or there and we could be in a slightly different position. But you have to play well in these critical moments and that has not happened to us,” he noted.
The pitch of the Chinnaswamy stadium has more unusually favored the quisors in this IPL than the strikers, but Dravid hoped for a change of character on Thursday.
“Just do it independently (from the nature of the height). But I think each surface will be different. The counter I see here, according to at least what I can do with it, looks like a very good counter.
“So, I can’t really say what these counters look like in previous games, but the track that was produced for this one seems to be a very good cricket window and I think it should be a fairly high score game,” he added.
Sanju is evaluated ==================== Dravid said that the regular RR skipper SANJU SAMSON is assessed daily. Samson will miss the match against RCB with an abdominal lap.
“Sanju, I think, has somehow picked up a little problem with the match against Delhi (Capitals) and he could not play the last game and in this match too. He was not in good shape and our medical team did not rule him in shape to play this game.
“So, we made the decision and medical advice not to risk traveling – make two other flights and be here. We have kept the physio so that we can treat it and try to recover it as quickly as possible. We look at it day by day.” The former coach of India has given no specific time line for the return of Samson.
“I don’t have a time line to give when exactly it will be in good shape, but we do our best, you know, of course, we have to play here, after that, we have a match on April 27 and we have a few games quickly and then we have a gap.
“So we will just have to see how it goes. Honestly, he was not suitable for this game and he did not trace here,” he added.
Dravid said Riyan Parag had actually intervened as the team captain in the absence of Samson despite a few games not making the team.
“Sanju is still the team captain and Riyan is the vice-captain and he has intervened. I think Riyan had run four of the games, even in the first three games, in fact, Sanju could not surf because of the finger injury.
“Some of these matches have not been easy, especially those who score, such as the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad. But I think he did a good job.” The 52 -year -old said that Parag had remained collected in the face of difficult work like Captain IPL.
“I think it was really good, calm and, you know, we just discussed some of his bowling changes and his placements on the ground with him.
“I think they were really good and that he gets the game pulse very well. So, for someone who is so young and who starts in his captain, I think he is in a way, you know, by adapting well. Of course, the team must play well for him,” he said.
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