Ajinkya Rahane still optimistic about the Royals' playoffs qualification

The fate of the Rajasthan Royals (RR) is hanging by a thread after their loss at the hands of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Eden Gardens. Their gun players Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler played their last game for the franchise as they had to join England squad ahead of the Test series against Pakistan. Moreover, their NRR is not encouraging and will have to register a victory by a big margin in their final league game. However, the skipper Ajinkya Rahane is still optimistic about the chances of his side to go through to the knockouts.

The Royals will mostly miss the services of Buttler who was in magnificent form with the bat ever since he was promoted to bat up the order. He had smashed five consecutive half-centuries until the previous and also chipped in with 39 runs off just 22 balls against KKR. He was the only in-form and consistent batsman in the line-up of the team even as the captain has also failed to lead from the front. As it turned out, an early dismissal of Buttler led to a collapse last night after which they never recovered.

We still have to believe

Ajinkya Rahane, while speaking in the post-match press conference, admitted that the team hasn’t batted well to their potential this year an had to improve significantly ahead of the last league game against RCB. He was also hopeful that the boys will step up and stressed that they had to believe that the team will qualify for the playoffs.

“We still have to believe in ourselves. Anything can happen in cricket, it’s a funny game. We have to learn from our mistakes. We were too positive with our batting tonight. But, we have to learn as a team. I’m sure the boys, especially the overseas players, will step up in the last league game against RCB,” he was quoted as saying by Times of India. He was also of the opinion that the team will miss the England duo but was confident about the remaining overseas players who will replace them in the side.

“Definitely, we will miss Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler. I am really happy for Jos. Because, as a player, it’s everyone’s dream to represent their country in the longer format. We have got 3-4 overseas players with us, they are equally good,” Rahane added.

[interaction id=”5afbe50fea1460486485cbb7″]

Keep following CricTracker for more news an updates