Kolkata Knight Riders all-rounder Rovman Powell on Saturday said the team remains upbeat despite a challenging season so far, stressing that their fate is still in their own hands as they look to gain late momentum in the IPL. The defending champions have won just four of their 10 matches and must win all four remaining fixtures to make the playoffs. They face the already-ousted Rajasthan Royals in a crucial tie here on Saturday.
“At the start of the competition, it’s a situation that we don’t want to find ourselves in but our destiny is still in our own hands, it’s a good place to be in. The team is gelling nicely. It’s just for us to take it one game at a time,” Powell said during the pre-match press conference.
Acknowledging their patchy campaign so far, Powell said the focus now is firmly on the present and future rather than the past.
“It’s who at this point play the better cricket. Whatever happened before in the first half of the competition is history. We all know that IPL is one with a team that finds momentum at the back-end of the competition and if we can do that, we give ourselves the best chance of being champions again.” Batting has been KKR’s Achilles heel this season, with key players like Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh and Andre Russell struggling to find consistency.
However, Powell pointed to the team’s ability to post three 200-plus totals despite the indifferent form was a positive sign.
“It’s an exciting batting unit. To see we scored 200 on a few occasions and a lot of our batters haven’t done what they want to do—you know, from a batting standpoint it’s just for us each and every game to keep on getting better.
“The last game is a good testament to show that the hard work that they have done over the last eight or so games. Hopefully we can keep trending upward as a batting group.” Powell singled out the loss to Punjab Kings, where KKR failed to chase down 112, as a turning point that dented their standings.
“Definitely, you know, if we should go back and look on the Punjab game when we got 112 to make, that game really hurt us.
“It really affected our standing in the table. If we had gotten those two points we would be sitting here with more smiles on our face. But we had conversations and the guys have made incredible strides, hopefully we can continue those strides.” “You can’t get too desperate, you still have to trust the process. It’s not just an important phase for us as a team but it’s an important phase for all the teams, even the teams that are leading who are in the top-four spot at the moment.” On his dynamic with fellow Caribbean big-hitter Andre Russell, Powell explained the team’s tactical approach to their batting order.
“It’s more tactical than ever. When you look on the team, it’s built around strong Indian batters in the middle. Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, the captain Ajinkya Rahane — we have those guys to get us through the middle.
“Young Angkrish (Raghuvanshi) has been excellent for us. We have those Indian batters to get us through the middle and then you try to add a little bit of Caribbean power in the last 5-4 overs.”
Rahane has started batting
On Rahane’s availability after the KKR skipper injured his right hand in their previous match against Delhi Capitals, Powell said there were encouraging signs.
“It’s good that we have a few days from the last game that he got injured so the medical team is working extremely hard with him. He has shown progressive improvement over the last few days.
“He started batting. So that is a good sign going into tomorrow. It’s important for us to have him. He has been one of our batters who have been a shining light throughout the competition so far.” Rahane was seen taking a few throw-downs in a moderate practice session for the skipper. PTI TAP AT AT AT
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