Kings XI Punjab were bowled out for 88 against RCB. (Source: IPL)
After suffering a shocking 10-wicket defeat at the hands of Royal Challengers Bangalore in Indore on Monday, Kings XI Punjab skipper Ravichandran Ashwin minced no words and admitted that there is a problem with their side’s batting unit. After being asked to put to bat first by RCB skipper Virat Kohli, KXIP were bundled out for 88 in just 15.1 overs with only 3 of 11 batsman scoring runs in double figures. Speaking at the press conference, Ashwin said that he expected his side to face troubles in the second half of the tournament.
“We have a problem with our batting. We are not one of the top champion sides to be very honest, we are one of those sides that punched above our weight in the first half of the competition. To be very precise, I did expect to find ourselves in such a situation, but not this much; probably thought we might have won one or two more games and probably reached 14 or 16 points,” he said.
After suffering three straight losses in the tournament, at the hands of Rajasthan Royals, Kolkata Knight Riders and RCB, the 31-year old skipper further went on to add that there are no easy games in the tournament.
With two heavy losses, KXIP have slipped to the fifth position in the table and now need to mount back a comeback in order to get back to a Playoff contention. On being questioned about the reasons for the slip at home ground, Ashwin said that defending in Indore is not an easy task. “Defending on this ground isn’t easy. We perhaps made the mistake of trying to score more than the par score and thereby ended up losing wickets. We did not play according to the situations,” he said.
With KXIP’s next challenge in Mumbai, Ashwin hoped that his side can bounce back and return to winning ways. We have lost three on the bounce now, don’t think we can lose four on the bounce. The next match is in Mumbai which has plenty of bounce and generally the foreign batsmen enjoy playing in those conditions, so hopefully our foreign batsmen will also come good,” he said.
On being questioned about the poor form of the middle-order, Ashwin said that the batting unit can deliver at any stage. “I played in a franchise before called CSK where one batsman (Murali Vijay) made absolutely no runs during the league stage and then went on to make 95 in the final, big batsmen come good at the big moments,” he said. “It’s not rocket science, you need to have belief,” he added.
Kings XI Punjab will travel to Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai to face Mumbai Indians on Tuesday.
Follow The Indian Express Coverage on Karnataka Assembly Election Results 2018. For live coverage, live expert analysis and real-time interactive map, log on to IndianExpress.com