Not getting the complete game from all three facets: Aaron Finch

Gujarat Lions are struggling this IPL and are at the bottom of the table, which is a stark contrast to their performance of last year, where they topped the table at the end of the league games. They have managed to win just one game out of 5 played thus far this year and their poor performance is largely attributed to their dismal bowling performance.

They are currently in Kolkata, where they face KKR in their 6^th game tonight. They performed well with the bat in their last game against RCB, like they have mostly this year. Their batting responded spiritedly to their chase of 214 but fell 21 runs short at the end. They need to fix their woeful bowling performances if they want to make further progress in the tournament.

Their star batsmen Dinesh Karthik and Aaron Finch spoke to a select group of media ahead of their clash with KKR. Australian Finch was of the view that their batting, bowling and fielding haven’t clicked together.

“I think it’s a bit of a combination of a few things. We haven’t consistently done well in batting, bowling and fielding together.

“We played very well against Rising Pune Supergiant… We have been batting well, with McCullum and Dinesh raising the standard. They have played excellently so far… Raina had some good innings too. But we are not getting the complete game from all three facets,” Finch was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.

It was KKR who handed Gujarat Lions a thumping loss in their first game of the season. The 2-time champions annihilated the Gujarat bowlers and got home with all 10 wickets intact in a chase of 183. Ever since their bowling has been identified as the weak link and teams have targeted that. The beating they got in the first game doesn’t worry the Lions ahead of their second game against KKR, feels Finch.

“I don’t think so… It’s more about talking amongst ourselves… Trying to get some feedbacks, some ideas, get some bowling plans in place… I don’t think there’s much groundbreaking stuff for any of the franchises when it comes to preparation. It’s just rehashing the things done earlier and making sure that everyone stays positive and sticks to the plan,” Finch said.

Dinesh Karthik, who came into this tournament in rich vein of form as he dominated the batting charts in the domestic one-day tournament leading up to the IPL, pointed out the inexperience of their bowling attack.

“Our batting has been pretty okay, but our bowling is a little inexperienced, so we are getting exposed at times. Having said that, we do have some good bowlers. All it takes is for someone to stand up and deliver,” Karthik said.

The only threatening bowler in their ranks has been the young Basil Thampi. He has bowled with pace and a lot of heart but Karthik feels that he needs some support from the other bowlers as there is only little he could do on his own.

“Basil Thampi has looked promising, but I think he will look even better if the bowlers around him do well. But that’s not happening at this point. We need to bowl better. Our fielding has also been up and down. It’s that phase of the tournament where we will have to really up our game.”

Gujarat has adopted the fail-safe policy of bolstering their batting unit to make up for their relatively average bowling attack. They will have to rethink their strategy and find a way to strengthen their bowling attack.