Sharjah: Following their six-run defeat to Royal Challengers Bangalore here Sunday, Punjab Kings captain KL Rahul said his team missed a hitter in the middle order who could have scored quick runs for them.
“If I have to be honest, our batting has let us down. I’ll be lying if I say it doesn’t play on my mind that I play a role that the team demands. It’s not something that I enjoy, but when you lead the team, you have to accept the responsibility. In T20, the top two or three do score a bulk of the runs.
“You won’t have people in the middle order scoring 500-600 runs. But we have missed someone in the middle who scores those 30-40 quick runs. Shahrukh Khan and some of the other Indian young guys have been going well,” a dejected looking Rahul said after the match.
Chasing 165, Rahul and Mayank Agarwal added 91 runs for the opening stand, until Shahbaz Ahmed dismissed the former. PBKS then kept losing wickets and fell short of the target.
“It was a score that was par. Maybe 10-15 runs extra. When a guy like Maxwell comes in with that sort of form, it makes it difficult. But with the bat, the last couple of years have been disappointing,” he added.