IPL 2021: Players keen to help Punjab Kings make soaring comeback, says KL Rahul

Punjab Kings (PBKS) skipper KL Rahul believes that his players are extremely eager to help the franchise complete a turnaround in IPL 2021, having suffered a tragic defeat against Rajasthan Royals (RR) recently. Rahul expressed his opinion while out for the toss in Match 37 of the ongoing 2021 edition of IPL against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). SRH skipper Kane Williamson has opted to field after winning the toss and gone in with an unchanged lineup for the crucial encounter, with a triumph supremely important. Their opponents have decided to make three changes with Chris Gayle’s addition being the biggest of them all. Nathan Ellis and Ravi Bishnoi represent the other two players who have been included, with the former making his debut in the IPL.

“Everyone is keen to get out there and turn this around”

While Rahul indicated a sense of lack of coherence with his approach, the opener was confident about his teammates helping PBKS complete a soaring comeback.

“I was unsure of what to do. That (last) game it can either deflate you or make you go fearless. Everyone is keen to get out there and turn this around. We have three changes. Fabien Allen, Porel and Adil Rashid are out. Ellis, Gayle and Ravi Bishnoi are back in the team. When you are the bottom of the table, you are still trying to figure out what your best eleven is. With Chris back in the side, it gives me and Mayank a lot of breathing space at the top. Chris has always delivered for us and hope he can do that again for us today,” said the PBKS skipper as quoted by Cricbuzz.

“Will try to restrict them to a low score”

Williamson termed dew as a factor that influenced his decision to field on a small ground.

“We gonna have a bowl, chances of dew coming in later on and it’s a small ground. We will try to restrict them to a low score. it’s about staying tight together and making small adjustments. It’s important to keep coming up with that energy and at times it’s easy to reflect on past performances where we have done better but we need to play with that freedom. We are playing the same team,” said the SRH skipper.

Manish Pandey, one of the key members of the SRH setup admitted that the team needed to improve their performances, going into the remaining few matches of IPL 2021.

“We have won only one game. We could have done a lot of things better as a team. One thing from now on for the rest of the games would be that we need to play together as a team and back each other. Just do the simple basics that need be done to play a team sport. A couple of more victories on the way and we will have a lot to learn and lot to take from the season. One of the best (feelings to have won consecutive games to advance to playoffs before). That’s when the real team character comes out and that’s what SRH is known for,” he stated.

Lineups:

Punjab Kings (Playing XI): KL Rahul(w/c), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Deepak Hooda, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Shami, Harpreet Brar, Arshdeep Singh, Nathan Ellis.

Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): David Warner, Wriddhiman Saha(w), Kane Williamson(c), Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Abdul Samad, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed.