Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], April 23 : Ahead of his side's away game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), Rajasthan Royals (RR) head coach Rahul Dravid said that the team cannot afford to make much mistakes from now on with just six games left in their league stage campaign.
A struggling RR, having lost six out of their eight matches, with an ongoing four-match losing streak, will be taking on RCB, who have won five matches outside home in a row, but have lost all three games at the home venue of M Chinnaswamy Stadium, where they will try to break the jinx on Wednesday.
In their two recent games against Delhi Capitals (DC) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), RR needed nine runs in the final over, but lost the match after a Super Over following a tie and by two runs, respectively.
Speaking ahead of the game in the pre-match presser, Dravid said as quoted by ESPNCricinfo, "We know we have to play well to be still alive in this tournament. I know we have lost a couple of close games coming into this, but we have played some good cricket as well. It is one of those tournaments where a few balls going here or there and we might have been in a slightly different position, but you need to play well in those critical moments."
The Bengaluru wicket has been challenging so far for batters during the first innings, with RCB's first innings so far being 169 for 8, 163 for 7, and 95 for 9 in a 14-over game. Though the bowlers put up a fine fight, RCB lost all their games at home.
Speaking about batting approach on such tough pitches, Dravid said, " I mean, you just have to go for it irrespective and that is a given. But I think every surface will be different. I think the last one, just having a chat with the groundsman, it was under covers for a really long period of time, so it was probably not a good one to judge it on."
"The wicket I am seeing here, from at least what I can make of it, looks a really good wicket, so I cannot really say how those wickets looked in earlier games. But the track that is been produced for this one looks actually to be a very good cricket wicket and I think it should be a pretty high-scoring game."
"Like I said earlier, it is a very important game for us. Every game from here on, the position we find ourselves in, we cannot afford to make many mistakes. We have got to start climbing that table quickly and we have got to start winning games quickly, there is no options, no chances of slipping up anymore," he continued.
Dravid was also asked his opinion on teams losing more often at home this season, with only the Gujarat Titans (GT), Delhi Capitals (DC) and Mumbai Indians (MI) winning more at home than losing.
"I am not really sure what specific franchises might have wanted from their curators or from their pitches. But yeah, I think home advantage, generally, the teams are new as well, right? It is the first year of a big auction cycle, so for a lot of the players, even though they may be your home players, they are playing for those teams or those grounds for the first time."
"For example, at RCB, someone like Phil Salt was at KKR and he is coming here for the first time. Someone like Nitish Rana who was not with us and he is playing for us this year, so for him, Jaipur is actually kind of a new ground in some ways."
"So maybe sometimes, I think that when you just have a big auction and there is a change of squad and a change of team, the home advantage may not be that significant. But maybe as you go later on into the cycle, maybe you might start seeing their significance a little bit more because then your players get to practice and play a little bit more on that compared to the opposition team," he concluded.