Royal Challengers Bangalore has the potential to get its IPL 2019 campaign back on track, Parthiv Patel said on the eve of the team's fifth match . While Bangalore suffered a narrow defeat to Mumbai Indians in its second match, it has suffered three big-margin defeats, with its batting misfiring on each of those occasions.
“We can’t shy away from saying that we are under the pump," Patel, who is the leading run-scorer from the franchise, said in the pre-match press conference. "That’s definitely the case, there is no doubt about it. We can’t sit here and say we are 0-4 and we are happy about it! But, to be honest, we are quite positive about the team we have. We have always spoken about it in our dressing room.
"The kind of team we have, we don’t deserve to have lost four games in a row. The game against Mumbai was tight. Even if you look at last game, we didn’t field well, bat well or bowl well and still the game went almost to the last ball. We feel that if we play to our potential, we will get that required momentum which is required in this tournament."
Batting mainstays Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers have struggled for runs at the start of the season and Patel says the duo is hungry for runs. “Obviously they set very high standards, there is no doubt about it. The reason everyone is taking about Virat and AB is because of the performance they have given earlier. I think more than anything, they will try and score big. AB had a good game against Mumbai here and Virat got a 40 as well in the same game. I am sure as everyone else, they will be hungry for runs,” the wicketkeeper-batsman said.
Reflecting on his own performances so far this season, Patel said, “Obviously I am quite happy the way I have played but individual performances doesn’t matter as much. Whoever plays in the XI tries to do well and exactly what I have been trying to do. Every time I get a chance to play, I try to perform to the best of my ability and I am glad the performances have come so far.”
Patel also defended the bowlers who have been drawing flak for their death bowling. “We got 70 runs in the game against Chennai and they took 18 overs to get those 70 runs, so I am sure it was not a very miserable performance by the bowlers. Last game, we got 160. They finished in the 20th over, so it wasn’t that bad. Mumbai game, we lost in the last over. Only one game, we lost badly. You got to give credit sometimes to the batsmen as well.
“Obviously we can’t bring in any new bowlers now. The auction is done, there is nothing you can do about it. As far as team changes are concerned, I am sure captain and coach will look into it,” he said.
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