We’ve learnt our lessons from last year – Gambhir
May 7, 2016 at 9:55 PM
Despite his team being at the top of the table, Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir has said that his side has learned the lesson from the last season and will take every match seriously.
“We’ve learnt from last year,” he said on Saturday (May 7), on the eve of the team’s clash against Gujarat Lions. “In the last edition, everyone thought that we’ll get through and ultimately we were the only side that couldn’t qualify. We couldn’t win one game out of the last two. We want to play as a professional side and play as a champion unit as well. Take every game as it comes, try and qualify for the playoffs and then see where we finish.
“Tomorrow is an important game, if we can win the game tomorrow, then it increases the gap as well. We’ll also have one game in hand. We’ve learnt a lot from the last year and hopefully, we don’t make the same mistakes that we did last year.”
Kolkata won their last two matches but both the encounters were close as Kolkata won them in the last over. Gambhir said that that the team will now look to avoid such close encounters and will look to dominate the tournament.
I don’t think that the team achieves anything from a close finish and I don’t think that the teams want a close finish,” Gambhir said. “There’s far more stress. The closer the game gets, people need to handle the nerves better as well.
“As a player, you want to win the game convincingly because that’s how you start dominating the tournament as well. When there’s a close finish you start saying we should have bowled well or we should have got those extra 15-20 runs more. What teaches you is if we can start winning consistently and start dominating other teams as well.”
Spin has been Kolkata’s biggest strength in the recent seasons but their star spinners Sunil Narine and Brad Hogg have struggled to replicate their past form. With Kolkata set to play 4 matches from their final 5 matches at Eden Gardens which has assisted spinners in the recent times, spinners will have a big role to play.But Gambhir said that he is not very much concerned with their form.
“Sunil bowled really well in Bangalore. We all knew it was a difficult ground for a spinner to a bowl and the way he handled himself was brilliant. Ten runs per over on that ground, on that wicket, is pretty good and pretty par,” he said.