IPL 2023: 'Very easy to lose confidence'

Kolkata Knight Riders' aggressive batter Jason Roy on Tuesday admitted that it has been a tough first half for the two-time Indian Premier League winners, urging them to "draw a line in the sand" and keep pushing hard.

With four points, KKR have just two wins and five defeats to show from seven matches and are staring at a huge challenge to resurrect a faltering campaign, in which there have been a few bright spots.

Rinku Singh's aggressive batting at the death and Venkatesh Iyer's century against Mumbai Indians — only the second for KKR after Brendon McCullum's 158 in the first-ever IPL match back in 2008 — have been the highlights in an otherwise poor season so far.

KKR will face Royal Challengers Bangalore in Bengaluru on Wednesday, whom they had crushed by 81 runs in their previous meet earlier this season.

But momentum is lost for KKR who have now lost four games on the trot and Roy said KKR need to "draw a line in the sand" post a poor first half.

"The talk in the camp is to just keep pushing hard, we got to enjoy ourselves. It is very easy in cricket, especially in short formats to lose and (resultantly) lose a lot of confidence," Roy told the media during his pre-match press conference in Bengaluru.

"We are trying to keep the confidence high, smile in the change room, making sure our methods do not change too much. As individuals we need to look in the mirror, get better each session and think how we can individually impact the game in a better way. We have had some good individual performances along the losses, which is a bit of positive, but a loss is a loss," he said.

"We got to draw a line in the sand now that the half of the tournament is done for us and we just got to push forward," Roy added.

Roy, who smacked a 26-ball 61 with five sixes and as many fours against Chennai Super Kings batting at No 5, said that he wanted to open but could not, owing to the rules since he had left the field during the first half.

"I left the field for 12 minutes at the end of our innings so I was not able to bat for further 12 minutes when our innings started, and it just so happened that we lost those wickets when we did.

"It is just the rules of the game, unfortunately. There was no reason behind it, I really wanted to open and I was pushing my case to open on that wicket, and had to try and do the job in the middle-order," he said.

Roy refused to read much into KKR's struggles in the powerplay, having consistently lost wickets at the start.

"The guys are training, working hardest to be the best version of them. There is no reason behind it; it is just the way cricket goes sometimes," he said.

The right-handed English batter said he is not looking too far ahead at the World Cup later this year and is focussed on the IPL for now.

"With the 50-over World Cup at the end of the year, I have played quite a bit of cricket in the subcontinent. I am just excited to keep pushing for the rest of the tournament (IPL) because we have had a tough start; there is no hiding (from) that. It is (going to be) a huge second half for us," he said.

• IPL 2023