Rajasthan Royals had made Sawai Man Singh Stadium their fortress in previous editions with high success rate. With conditions and pitches suiting to their credentials and good home support, they made everyone bite the dust last year and had won all eight games and later also extended their cent percent record with another four wins in the Champions league.
But this year, due to the existing ordeal between Rajasthan Cricket Association and the BCCI, IPl governing council has shifted all of their matches to Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad for this edition.
Now after the UAE leg gets over, the Shane Watson led Royals might miss the home advantage. But the team’s former skipper-turned mentor Rahul Dravid is giving positive vibes about playing at Ahmedabad.
“We had a good time in previous editions at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium. We like SMS both on and off the field. The people of Jaipur and Rajasthan have been pretty supportive and we have managed to make a fan base there. But, this year we will be playing at a new home — Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad. I have played a lot of cricket there and it is a good place. We are looking forward to play well there and we are hoping to have equal success there as well,” Dravid said during a promotional event of his team’s official Sports Education partner, Deakin University of Australia.
Talking about his team’s performance in the recently concluded UAE leg, the former Indian captain said, the best part about the UAE leg is the fact that we have won more matches (three) than we have lost (two). We played good cricket in all the five matches. The two games that we lost were quite close. So, it was a good start for us. We need to continue playing good cricket as the competition will be tough from here on.”
The Royals registered three victories. One of the wins came on Tuesday night in a dramatic fashion. After they were tied till Superover against Kolkata Knight Riders, they crossed the rope on scoring more boundaries. Dravid feels that a win like that will instill a lot of energy into the young team. “last night’s win was a huge step forward for the team. Wins like that do a lot of good for the team’s confidence and spirit,” he analysed.
In the IPl, the teams carry a big squad and it is not easy to fit every player into the team. Hence, many players tend to lose focus but Dravid opined that the Royals keep every player motivated.
“It’s never an easy decision to drop players. We played last time with 23 players. We try and give everyone time to prepare and make them feel a part of the unit. We treat each of them equally. It is a new team with 15 fresh players and we are gelling well at the moment,” Dravid said.