Delhi Daredevils captain Zaheer Khan on Thursday said that his team must regain its momentum over the next nine days, when it would play five matches.
Ahead of DD’s Indian Premier League clash against table topper Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens on Friday, Zaheer said his team should have a bigger goal instead of focusing on just one match. “We need a winning momentum. We are playing five matches in next nine days. It’s an important phase for our campaign in this IPL. If we achieve a winning momentum, many things will fall in place by May 6,” said Zaheer.
“It is important to look at matches in bunches. That’s exactly is the key. We have not played as many matches as others. I am confident this group will deliver when it matters.”
Examining DD’s three successive losses, Zaheer said, “There have been many close matches but we are not able to finish them. If you see the points table, we have a very good net run-rate. It happens only if a team does well… if we had achieved two wins out of those close games, it would have been a different scenario.”
Zaheer backed the young talent, including Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson and Shreyas Iyer, in his side. “The kind of potential we have as a unit is amazing. It just needs a little bit of confidence. It comes with winning.”
Zaheer said the inclusion of Marlon Samuels (from April 29 onwards) would help DD. Terming KKR a ‘stable side’ under Gautam Gambhir’s good leadership, the DD skipper said Friday’s match would be “a very good challenge. They have been good at chasing, batting really well.”
Zaheer said his faster bowlers were “excited” to perform well on the Eden Gardens pitch. Asked about Mohammed Shami, the DD captain said the Bengal pacer had no issues and could not feature in a few matches as he did not fit into different combinations.
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