Head coach Rahul Dravid on Wednesday admitted that Rajasthan Royals could not buy another slip-up after slipping at the eighth position on the IPL points table and his team has “winning the game quickly” in addition to starting “the game quickly”. Royals will come against Royal Challengers Bangalore at M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday, and another upsurge will make it really difficult for them to nourish play-off aspirations. “This is a very important game for us, in fact, in every game from here, as we find ourselves, we can’t make many mistakes. This phase is a tournament … Just more than half the way, we find ourselves in the lower half of the table,” Dravid said in a pre-match press conference.
He said, “We have started climbing on that table quickly and we have started winning the game quickly. There is no option, there is no possibility to slip now.”
Dravid admitted that despite playing outstanding cricket in the patch, the Royals have not performed well in the crunchy situations in this tournament.
“We know that we still have to play well in this tournament to survive. Now, we have lost some close games coming in it, but we have also played some good cricket.
He said, “This is one of the tournaments where some balls are going here or there and we can be in a slightly different situation. But you need to play well in those important moments and it’s not for us,” he said.
The pitch of the Chinnaswamy Stadium has preferred unusually bowlers in this IPL than the batsmen, but Dravid expected the character change on Thursday.
“You just have to go for this (nature of the pitch). But I think every surface will be different. Wickets I am watching here, at least what I can make it, actually looks like a good wicket.
“So, I can’t really say how those wickets were seen in earlier games, but the track produced for this really seems to be a very good cricket wicket and I think it should be a very high scoring game,” he said.
Sanju is being assessed ================= The food said that the fitness of RR captain Sanju Samson is being evaluated on a daily basis. Samson will recall the match against RCB with a stomach swallowing.
“Sanju, I think, picked up a side issue with the game against Delhi (Capital) and could not play the last game and even in the game. He was not fit and our medical team did not fit to play the game.
“So, we decided and medical advice made him more flights and stay here to travel to travel. The former coach of India did not give any specific time-line for Samson’s return.
“I have no time line to give, when he will actually fit, but we are doing our best, you know, obviously we have got to play here, after that we (April) got a game in 27th place and we have got some games early and then we have got a gap.
“So, we just have to see how this happens. Honestly, he was not fit for the game and he did not travel here,” he said.
Dravid said that Ryan Parag has stepped as the captain of the side in the absence of Samson despite not going in the team’s way.
“Sanju is still the captain of the team and Ryan is the vice-captain and he really stepped out. I think Ryan had captained four games, even in the first three matches, in fact, Sanju was not in the fray due to a finger injury.
“Some of those games are not easy, especially high -scoring, such as the game against Sunrisers Hyderabad. But I think they have done a good job.” The 52 -year -old said that Parag has been collected in front of a difficult job like IPL captaincy.
“I think he is really good, calm and, you know, we were having a chat with him about some of his bowling and field placements.
“I think they are really good and they are really getting the pulse of the game really well. So for someone who is so small and just starting in his captaincy, I think he thinks he is in a way, you know, adopt it well. Of course, the team needs to play well,” he said.
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