A long tournament like IPL allows teams time to bounce back: Amre

Ahmedabad: A long tournament like the IPL gives teams, who have started poorly, time to bounce back and stay in the reckoning for the playoffs, something which Delhi Capitals coach Praveen Amre emphasized during the pre-match press conference here on Monday. Capitals have four points from eight matches and are languishing at the bottom of the league table.“Many teams have made comebacks after a poor start in the IPL. That’s the beauty of this tournament. Any team can beat any side. That’s why we have to give our best. It’s going to be challenging for us to play against Gujarat. But you never know what can happen in the IPL,” said a positive-sounding Amre.He said, “We have to stay in the present and focus on taking the two points in our next game. Our middle order has to bat better and we’ll look to improve our batting at the death.”Saying that Axar Patel has been tasked with the finisher’s role, Amre said, “Axar has the ability to finish the game. We need someone to play the finisher’s role. He has struck the highest number of sixes for us this season. Therefore, we have to hold him back sometimes, so that he can play the finisher’s role in the batting order.”Titans opener Shubman Gill enumerated the challenges of playing a 14-match long league. The 23-year-old said, “It is definitely a challenge in itself because of the number of matches (14) we play. Generally, I don’t think we play so many matches in any other tournament – in the World Cup we play nine league games.”He said, “If you are lucky you play all the games, otherwise, you play only a few. Next year, you keep building on that experience. In 2020, I started opening. Before that I was playing in all sort of positions. It has been a good journey, each year has taught me something. It is more of a mental challenge to show your intensity and put your 100% till the 16th game, till the final.”