For Rajat Bhatia, Rajasthan Royals is his third team having played for Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders previously. The multi utility cricketer feels that his latest franchise believes in playing smart cricket.
“Well, I think they are more planned and systematic in their approach. Here every move is meticulously sorted out. It’s not like we just go to the ground and plan things. We have things sorted out much before. Some plans work and some don’t,” he said. Royals have won three matches in the UAE leg and Bhatia insists that there was no specific goal as far as number of victories are concerned.
“To be honest there wasn’t any kind of targets set. We have a very good set of players and a mentor of Rahul Dravid’s calibre. So when we go out there on the field, we don’t care about winning and losing. We try to play our best cricket and we know that we will get best results.”
For Bhatia, the role remains same where in he needs to restrict the opposition batsmen in the middle overs. “I am doing what exactly I did for Delhi Daredevils and KKR in earlier editions of IPl. My job is to make the batsmen struggle with my strengths and get a few wickets. It’s not about bowling 140 kmph.”
Talking about his team’s last match against Kolkata in the UAE leg, Bhatia said that his team knew exactly what was to be done while he’s not sure about whether KKR did.
“This Rajasthan Royals team believes in playing smart cricket rather than aggressive cricket. We knew that two runs from the last delivery was good enough to win the match. Steve Smith and Shane Watson were out there in the middle and you don’t need to tell them what needs to be done. They knew it beforehand. It was about showing common sense which is emphasised at every team meeting.
“Each and every guy in our team knew about the equation. I don’t know whether KKR players were aware about it or not,” Bhatia said prior to Royals’ net session. On missing superstars sans Shane Watson being a boon, Bhatia replied,
“Every player in our team is a superstar. That’s the reason why they have been picked. It’s not about Shane Watson but every individual in this team who will have to play their parts. They know the roles assigned to them. It’s not about foreign players overshadowing Indian players. At the end of the day, four foreign players will play and seven Indian players,” Bhatia added.