“He is having a shoulder damage, so he’s more likely to be out for at the least a few days, I might say,” Bangar mentioned. “Having an skilled opener, someone like Shikhar, who has expertise of enjoying on such wickets, turns into extraordinarily essential [for the team].
“Now we have to attend and see how he responds to the therapy. For the time being, it appears that evidently he might be out of motion for at the least seven-ten days.”
“No, no, he [Jitesh] wasn’t the designated vice-captain,” Bangar clarified when requested the query. “The impression may have been as a result of he attended the captains’ seminar, or assembly, in the beginning of the IPL. However the thought was all the time that… as a result of Sam has led the workforce within the earlier 12 months as nicely; he was late to reach from UK and he wished to have a couple of [training] classes, that is the explanation we could not ship him to Chennai. Therefore Jitesh was despatched, as a result of the directive was {that a} participant has to attend.
“It wasn’t the case that Jitesh was the stand-in captain. We had been very clear in our thoughts that if in any respect there needed to be a gap, Sam Curran might be taking up and do the job because the captain.”
Dhawan hasn’t had a spectacular time of it with the bat in IPL 2024, however is Kings’ highest run-getter at this stage with 152 runs from 5 innings, scoring at a mean of 30.40 and a strike fee of 125.61. In reality, Kings’ struggles with the bat on the high of the innings have contributed in a serious method to their lack of wins – they’ve 4 losses from six video games to date and are down at eighth place on the desk.
Jonny Bairstow, Dhawan’s opening companion, has had a tough time too, scoring simply 96 runs in six innings, whereas Prabhsimran Singh (119 runs in six innings) and Jitesh (106 runs in six innings) have struggled for consistency and influence additionally.
On Saturday, with Dhawan out, Kings tried Atharva Taide on the high. He scored 15 runs in 12 balls as Kings put up 38 for 1 within the powerplay on their method to a complete of 147 for 8.
“Definitely is a trigger for concern that the highest order just isn’t making sufficient runs for us,” Bangar mentioned. “They’re attempting laborious – I’m not saying that they don’t seem to be making use of themselves – however it’s simply not coming. Low-scoring video games, particularly at Mullanpur, the way in which the wicket is… that additionally has an element. As a result of for those who see, a number of the scores have been fairly low.
“All of the three video games that we’ve got performed right here, within the first six overs, with the brand new ball, the wicket tends to simply jag just a little bit, and uneven bounce as nicely. So possibly that can also be a contributing issue as a result of, not solely us, the visiting groups and their high order are going through points.”
