Captain Rishabh Pant on Monday admitted that it was difficult for him to fill the void created by the absence of the leading bowlers as Lucknow Super Giants had dropped the Indian Premier League from the race for the playoffs. LSG’s six-wicket disadvantage to Sunrisers Hyderabad excluded him from Recking for top-four finish, with pants-led side tolerated a demand campaign from his bowling squad, which was thin.
Pants told the broadcaster after its loss to SRH, “It could definitely be one of our best sessions, but coming to the tournament we caused a lot of intervals, injuries and we decided not to talk about it as a team, but it became difficult for us to fill those intervals.”
LSG started the IPL with injuries to Mohsin Khan, Avesh Khan, Akash Deep and Mayank Yadav.
While he signed Shardul Thakur after the season started and Avesh and Akash’s choice returned, Mayank could play only one -two games due to re -injury.
“The way we had planned the auction, if we had the same bowling … but it is cricket, sometimes things go in your way and sometimes they do not, we are proud of the way we played and take positivity from the season instead of the negative side.”
“We have a strong batting lineup, have enough firepower, and this is the biggest positive for the season,” Pant said, who himself ended a scary weather as a batsman.
Pant said that LSG found it difficult to live with other teams as the playoff race became hot.
He said, “We had really played well the first half of the season, but in the second half it became difficult and difficult to catch it with teams in the bright side.”
“(Digvesh) Rathi has come out well for us, the first season of his, the way he bowled is one of the positivity, but you need to improve yourself and go better and better and go to the season,” he remembered between positivity.
SRH’s victory was founded by India’s opener Abhishek Sharma, who saw sixes and five fours to score 59 off just 20 balls. Sharma credited a clear plan for his success.
“If we (earlier) batted first, I could have other plans, but we had a clear plan chasing such a total. If you ask any player who is doing well for the team, then there is something that you should be able to win by chasing 200 plus.” Sharma said, “I wanted to express myself and if I do well, I know that the team is also going to do so. It was the same plan that I did in international cricket too. Just express myself and knock it around,” Sharma said.
Sharma said that it was important to take responsibility as an international player. He said, “You have to take responsibility as an international player. The scheme was similar to the international side. If it is on the first ball (opportunity), I had to go for it,” he said.
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